Dance With Shadows
by Five Dollar Mixtape
Summary: Oakkit lives in five Clans to the far North. Survival is hard. StarClan is believed in, but not worshipped. When a group of rogues comes to attack, and Oakkit receives a prophecy, she ignores it. How can dead cats help her fight, anyways?
1. Allegiances & Prologue

**[NorthClan]**

 **Leader - Miststar -** A light blue-gray she-cat with deep green eyes ( Apprentice: _Brokenpaw_ ).

 **Deputy - Frostfang -** A gray tom with a white chest, paws, and muzzle with blue eyes.

 **Medicine Cat- Featherripple -** A bright ginger tom with green eyes.

 **Warriors-**

 **Littlenose -** A brown tom with blue eyes.

 **Mosswing -** A short, gray-furred tom with bright green eyes.

 **Rustleclaw -** A brown tom with gray eyes.

 **Swiftflight -** A gray tabby she-cat with blue eyes.

 **Deerburr -** A dark brown tom with small white patches splashed across his pelt and bright green eyes.

 **Willowfang -** A gray, white, and black she-cat with green eyes ( Apprentice: _Coalpaw_ ).

 **Mountainfrost -** A large, brown-and-white tom with hazel eyes ( Apprentice: _Meadowpaw_ ).

 **Adderclaw -** A dark brown tom with blue eyes.

 **Lionrock -** A large golden brown-and-white tom with bright amber eyes.

 **Tigerfoot -** A brown tabby tom with green eyes.

 **Stagfur** \- A dark brown she-cat with yellow eyes.

 **Tawnyrain -** A black-and-gray tabby she-cat with bright green eyes.

 **Ravenstone -** A black she-cat with dark amber eyes.

 **Hawkfeather -** A brown tom with soft amber eyes.

 **Shrewtail -** A gray tom with yellow eyes.

 **Wolftooth -** A silver-and-gray tom with darker gray spots and green eyes.

 **Apprentices -**

 **Brokenpaw -** A brown tom with yellow eyes ( Mentor: _Miststar_ ).

 **Coalpaw -** A large black-and-white tom with green eyes ( Mentor: _Willowfang_ ).

 **Meadowpaw -** A light brown she-cat with sea-green eyes ( Mentor: _Mountainfrost_ ).

 **Queens -**

 **Tanglewhisper -** A tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat with dark amber eyes, mother of Creekkit and Oakkit.

 **Miststar** \- See leader, expecting Littlenose's kits.

 **Kits -**

 **Creekkit -** A tortoiseshell tom with bright green eyes.

 **Oakkit -** A white-and-dark brown tabby she-kit with amber eyes.

 **[DraftClan]**

 **Leader - Cherrystar -** A ginger-and-brown she-cat with amber eyes.

 **Deputy - Endersoul -** A muscular black she-cat with pretty, dark blue eyes ( Apprentice: _Darkpaw_ ).

 **Medicine Cat - Rosetail -** A small brown-and-cream she-cat with hazel eyes.

 **Warriors -**

 **Falconwing -** A gray-and-brown tom.

 **Bearfoot -** A large black-and-brown tom with amber eyes ( Apprentice: _Stonepaw_ ).

 **Breezeclaw -** A large, smokey-gray tom with blue eyes ( Apprentice: _Heatherpaw_ ).

 **Pearlheart -** A cream-and-light brown tabby she-cat with green eyes.

 **Stormheart -** A pale gray-and-black tom with green eyes ( Apprentice: _Quailpaw_ ).

 **Dawnfeather -** A silver, white, and dark gray she-cat with blue eyes ( Apprentice: _Dappledpaw_ ).

 **Featherstrike -** A gray she-cat with pale blue eyes.

 **Windfern -** A black-and-brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes.

 **Icefang -** A white tom with brown paws and blue eyes.

 **Honeysplash -** A ginger she-cat with black markings and amber eyes.

 **Foxfur -** A ginger she-cat with green eyes.

 **Wolffang -** A gray tom with blue eyes.

 **Owleye -** A dark brown tom with one blue eye and one permanently-closed and scarred eye.

 **Streakpelt -** A gray tom with aqua blue eyes.

 **Nightblaze -** A black tabby she-cat with ginger paws and amber eyes.

 **Sweetcloud -** A silver tabby she-cat with green eyes.

 **Apprentices -**

 **Stonepaw -** A gray tom with amber, almost golden eyes ( Mentor: _Bearfoot_ ).

 **Heatherpaw -** A brown she-cat with golden eyes ( Mentor: _Breezeclaw_ ).

 **Darkpaw -** A dark gray-and-black tom with fiery golden eyes ( Mentor: _Endersoul_ ).

 **Quailpaw -** A dark gray-and-black tom with copper eyes ( Mentor: _Stormheart_ ).

 **Dappledpaw -** A white, gray, and brown she-cat with hazel eyes ( Mentor: _Dawnfeather_ ).

 **Queen - Lightfoot -** A pale ginger-and-white she-cat with green eyes, mother of Nutkit, Icekit, and Sweetkit.

 **Kits -**

 **Nutkit -** A pale gray-and-black tom with amber eyes.

 **Icekit -** A small white-and-gray tom with green eyes.

 **Sweetkit -** A silver-and-pale ginger she-cat with clear blue eyes.

 **[GlacierClan]**

 **Leader - Jumpstar -** A black-and-brown tabby tom with blazing blue eyes.

 **Deputy - Frostfall -** A silver-and-gray she-cat with icy green eyes.

 **Medicine Cat - Cottonpelt -** A white-and-pale gray she-cat with blue eyes ( Apprentice: _Bluepaw_ ).

 **Warriors -**

 **Minktail -** A white-and-black she-cat with copper eyes.

 **Gooseflight -** A gray tabby tom with green eyes.

 **Ledgefoot -** A light brown tom with green eyes.

 **Laurelclaw -** A light brown-and-white tom with blue eyes.

 **Icestorm -** A white-and-cream tom with green eyes.

 **Ravenwing -** A black she-cat with amber eyes ( Apprentice: _Greenpaw_ ).

 **Ivysoar -** A brown-and-white she-cat with green eyes.

 **Robinflight -** A small russet she-cat with black markings and bright green eyes.

 **Riverheart -** A dark gray tom with amber eyes.

 **Hawktalon -** A dark brown tabby tom with white paws and amber eyes.

 **Apprentices -**

 **Bluepaw -** A light blue-gray she-cat with blue eyes ( Mentor: _Cottonpelt_ ).

 **Greenpaw -** A silver and black tabby with green eyes ( Mentor: _Ravenwing_ ).

 **Queens -**

 **Ivyblossom -** A tortoiseshell she-cat with dark amber eyes, mother of Shadekit, Cloudkit, and Alpinekit.

 **Echofall -** A bicolor light gray-and-white she-cat, expecting Riverheart's kits.

 **Kits -**

 **Shadekit -** A brown she-cat with green eyes.

 **Cloudkit -** A brown-and-cream she-cat with hazel eyes.

 **Alpinekit -** A gray-and-cream tom with dark amber eyes.

 **[SnowClan]**

 **Leader - Dewystar -** A silver tabby she-cat with blue eyes.

 **Deputy - Dovewhisker -** A pale gray she-cat with blue eyes.

 **Medicine Cat - Riverstone -** A large silvery-gray tom with icy blue eyes.

 **Warriors -**

 **Stormrunner -** A dark gray, almost black tom with pale blue eyes ( Apprentice: _Graypaw_ ).

 **Somberheart -** A black-and-ginger she-cat with sky blue eyes ( Apprentice: _Winterypaw_ ).

 **Wildshadow -** A black-and-ginger tom with green eyes.

 **Tinderflower -** A pale brown she-cat with white markings and hazel eyes.

 **Moonheart -** A pale gray she-cat with hazel eyes ( Apprentice: _Falconpaw_ ).

 **Falconclaw -** A silver, dark gray, and white tom with amber brown eyes.

 **Fawnstep** \- A brown-and-white tabby she-cat with amber eyes.

 **Icefoot -** A gray tom with blue-gray paws and blue eyes ( Apprentice: _Barkpaw_ ).

 **Yellowbreeze -** A ginger tom with one green eye and one blue eye.

 **Gorsefang -** A brown tabby tom with hazel eyes ( Apprentice: _Eaglepaw_ ).

 **Sorrelstripe -** A black-and-ginger tabby she-cat with green eyes.

 **Cloudflash -** A gray tabby tom with blue eyes.

 **Whiteflower -** A white she-cat with amber eyes ( Apprentice: _Willowpaw_ ).

 **Gorseshade -** A gray tabby tom with amber eyes.

 **Apprentices -**

 **Graypaw -** A gray-and-black tom with hazel eyes ( Mentor: _Stormrunner_ ).

 **Winterypaw -** A small snow white she-cat with blue eyes ( Mentor: _Somberheart_ ).

 **Barkpaw -** A pale brown she-cat with amber eyes ( Mentor: _Icefoot_ ).

 **Falconpaw -** A gray she-cat with dark blue eyes ( Mentor: _Moonheart_ ).

 **Eaglepaw -** A silver-and-gray tom with amber eyes ( Mentor: _Gorsefang_ ).

 **Willowpaw -** A pale gray she-cat with blue eyes ( Mentor: _Whiteflower_ ).

 **Queen - Frostflower -** A gray, black, and white she-cat with blue eyes.

 **Kit - Darkkit -** A dark blue-gray tom with blue eyes.

 **Elder - Tunnelstep -** A dark brown tom with amber eyes.

 **[FreezeClan]**

 **Leader - Redstar -** A flame colored tom with amber eyes.

 **Deputy - Hollyfoot -** A black tom with hazel eyes.

 **Medicine Cat - Duskleaf -** A gray-and-white she-cat with dark copper eyes ( Apprentice: _Rowanpaw_ ).

 **Warriors -**

 **Grouseleg -** A fluffy tortoiseshell, brown, and white tom with amber eyes.

 **Hickorytuft -** A large reddish-brown tom with pale blue eyes.

 **Redrain -** A dark russet tom with watery blue eyes.

 **Fadedglory -** A white she-cat with very pale green eyes that can appear to be different colors.

 **Jadedwing -** A black and blue-gray tom with pale green eyes.

 **Mistysky -** A dark gray she-cat with sea blue eyes.

 **Tumblestep -** A gray-and-white tom with hazel eyes ( Apprentice: _Twigpaw_ ).

 **Sageheart -** A golden brown she-cat with amber eyes.

 **Deadmist -** A black tom with pale green eyes ( Apprentice: _Flintpaw_ ).

 **Lakeleap -** A blue-gray tom with dark green eyes.

 **Bluefrost -** A blue-gray she-cat with blue eyes.

 **Hollowleap -** A dark brown tabby tom with green eyes.

 **Nutsky -** A pale brown she-cat with blue eyes.

 **Logrunner -** A black-and-pale brown tom with green eyes ( Apprentice: _Swiftpaw_ ).

 **Duskwhisper -** A black she-cat with amber eyes.

 **Grayfern -** A gray tabby tom with green eyes.

 **Rushsky -** A black tom with bright blue eyes.

 **Vixensong -** A russet-furred she-cat with amber eyes.

 **Apprentices-**

 **Twigpaw -** A brown she-cat with green eyes ( Mentor: _Tumblestep_ ).

 **Flintpaw -** A dark gray tom with hazel eyes ( Mentor: _Deadmist_ ).

 **Swiftpaw -** A black tom with golden eyes ( Mentor: _Logrunner_ ).

 **Rowanpaw -** A dark russet tom with blue eyes ( Mentor: _Duskleaf_ ).

 **Queens -**

 **Silverheart -** A silver-and-gray she-cat with yellow eyes, mother of Flamekit and Frostkit.

 **Birchfang -** A brown she-cat with brown eyes, mother of Applekit.

 **Featherpelt -** A black she-cat with a white underbelly, expecting Hollowleap's kits.

 **Kits -**

 **Flamekit -** A ginger tom with yellow eyes.

 **Frostkit -** A silver-and-gray she-kit with amber eyes.

 **Applekit -** A russet-and-gray she-kit with green eyes.

* * *

Cold was the first thing that she felt. The chill seeped past her fur, past her skin, and right down to the bone. One would be forgiven in thinking that it was cold enough to freeze even a cat's soul - especially one belonging to such a small, young, and vulnerable kit. As it was, the tiny kit only shivered, her first breath visible as she left her jaws and let out a wail. A tail, one covered in chilled fur, pulled her closer to a warmth so hot it felt like it was burning compared to the cold she had just been surrounded by. Another chilled pelt full of fluff pressed against her, and she began the process of warming up.

"Get some more moss, and some feathers!" a voice snapped. "We need to keep these two warm."

A tongue, rough in texture but gentle enough not to draw a complaint, rasped itself over her head. "You'll be warm soon, little once," a gentle voice whispered. "You're cold now, but you'll be so much stronger for it," it promised.

She relaxed into the warm fur around her, and another clouded breath left her. Something that wasn't fur packed in around her, helping her to retain her body heat. "Keep them warm, Tanglewhisper," the voice from earlier spoke. "We can't lose them."

"I'll take care of them," Tanglewhisper responded. "I'm not going to lose any kits."

"Good." The owner of the first voice started to leave; she could hear their pawsteps padding away. "I'll fetch Deerburr for you."

"Thank you." The not-fur material pressed harder around her, and she could feel the fur from Tanglewhisper's tail brushing against her own pelt. In a lower voice, the older and larger cat informed them, "You two will be the most well-fed cats in the Clan."

Large thumping - pawsteps, ones belonging to a cat that was either large, heavy, or both - announced another's arrival. "Are you okay?" a tom's voice asked, his voice coming out rushed. "Are the kits okay? Are you all warm? Have they eaten yet?"

"We're fine, Deerburr," Tanglewhisper purred, amusement in her tone. "Meet your new kits - we have a daughter, now."

Slowly, the heavy pawsteps approached, and a purr rumbled above her head.

"They're beautiful," Deerburr breathed. The young kit felt her nose brush against a nub in front of her, and on instinct she latched on and began to suckle. She was rewarded with warm milk pouring into her milk, and she began to knead against her mother's belly with tiny kitten paws to get more of her prize. "She'll be a strong one," the tom purred.

"I hope they both will be," Tanglewhisper returned. The fluffy pelt beside her joined her in suckling, and in silence they worked to get their first meal. "What should we name them?"

Deerburr let out a hum. "Creekkit?" he suggested.

For a few moments, Tanglewhisper was silent. "The tom looks like he could be a Creekkit," she murmured. "One with pebbles for the bed of it, instead of dirt."

"So Creekkit it'll be?"

"Creekkit it'll be." The she-cat fell silent again, and she could feel her mother's tail-tip gently brush against her back. "What do you think about Oakkit?"

Again, Deerburr hummed. "Her stripes remind me of a tree's branches," he commented. "Oakkit it'll be."

Tanglewhisper let out a soft chuckle. "Creekkit and Oakkit," she purred.

Deerburr let out a purr of his own. "Beautiful names for beautiful kits."


	2. chapter one

_"We're just kids, we're not supposed to be heroes."_

"Take _that_ , filthy SnowClanner!" the kit growled, leaping towards his sister and careening into her. The two kits tumbled in the pristine, fresh snow, clumps of it sticking itself to their fluffy fur. On instinct, the she-kit rolled along with her brother, her paws clutching at her brother's fur until she was pinned.

"I don't _wanna_ play, Creekkit," she complained.

"You _never_ wanna play," the tom shot back, lifting a paw and gently batting at her ears with it, making her face pinch in distaste.

"You always wanna play," she argued.

"Please, Oakkit?" Creekkit begged, giving her a pout. "I wanna play with you!"

Oakkit heaved a large and slow sigh. "Fine," she finally meowed. Creekkit let out a cheer, leaping to his paws and swishing his tail behind him.

Oakkit was smaller than her brother, but that was expected. Her paws were a bit too large for her and made her fumble, and her tail was long and thin. Constantly, she was reassured by her mother that she would grow into her paws and tail, but she wasn't so sure. Her pelt was fluffier than most would expect it to be, due to the need to keep her warm, and her fur was in a tabby pattern with white and dark brown stripes. Her forepaws, an ear, and her tail tip were a solid dark brown, but bled easily into her much paler fur, and her eyes were a warm amber.

Creekkit was the larger of the two kits, and the largest kit in the nursery - not that that was saying much, as currently, they were the only litter the Clan had. His pelt was just as fluffy as his sisters, but his muzzle seemed to be the slightest bit crooked. Oakkit had heard Tanglewhisper say that, once he was full-grown, it would make him look handsome, but that was decidedly something she didn't want to think about. His pelt, like their mother;s, was tortoiseshell, and his eyes were a copy of their father's bright green.

"Let's play warriors!" Creekkit advocated as his sister rolled to her paws, long tail flicking behind her, but he didn't give her any time to respond to his suggestion before he continued. "I'll be Creekstar, leader of NorthClan! Who're you?"

"Um..." Oakkit's eyes narrowed in thought. "Oakbranch, warrior of... SnowClan," she decided with a small nod of her head.

Her brother tilted his head at her, one of his ears folded backwards in confusion. "You're not going to be Oak _star_?"

"No," Oakkit told him. "I'm fine with just being a warrior."

Creekkit stared for a moment, then he shrugged his shoulders. "If you say so," he mewed. He dropped into a sloppy crouch, his tail swaying from side to side behind him as he narrowed his bright eyes. "Stay off of NorthClan territory, SnowClan scum!"

"Chase me off, then!" Oakkit snapped, balancing on her hind legs and hitting the other kit in the muzzle with a clumsy paw before he darted forwards, crashing into her and forcing her to fall back onto the soft snow once more. Oakkit struggled against the tom, but she managed to flip the two of them over. She struggled to pin him, but before she could, Creekkit kicked her off of him with his hindlegs and making her let out a huff as she stumbled backwards.

For all that she had complained about not wanting to play, it was clear that Oakkit was already enjoying herself. A smile fixed itself on her face, and she swiped at her brother's ears - something that was sure to make him irritated more than it would actually hurt him. She let out out a purr as he growled at her, and failed to dodge as Creekkit swatted gently at her face.

"Keeping warm, I see."

The two paused in their mock-battle, looking up at a cat that, to them, was larger than life. His dark brown fur was the same shade as Oakkit's, and tiny flecks of white were sprinkled throughout his pelt. Under all the fur, though, defined muscle made itself known and told others that this was not a cat to be trifled with lightly.

"Dad!" Creekkit greeted happily, his ears perking and angling towards the older tom as he looked up at him, making the larger cat purr.

"From what I just saw, I think you two will make fine warriors," he praised.

Interested, Oakkit's ears twitched, and she took a few pawsteps closer to Deerburr. "Really?"

Deerburr nodded, then he narrowed his eyes, glancing between the two. "Have you eaten today?"

Both moon-old kits nodded. "Tanglewhisper didn't let us go outside until we'd eaten," Oakkit relayed.

"That's good," he meowed, flicking his tail to the side. "But it's still not good for kits to be outside for too long."

Again, Creekkit pouted, but this time it was aimed at his father rather than his sister. "Why not?"

"Because kits - especially _my_ kits - are too important not to stay warm," Deerburr told them. Oakkit felt a spark of pride at that, and she lifted her chin just slightly in response to the feeling.

"Can't we stay out a little longer?" Creekkit asked.

Deerburr hummed as he considered, glancing over at the nursery. "I _suppose_ ," he decided, and the younger tom grinned in response. He sat down, curling his tail around his paws, and instantly Oakkit did her best to copy his position. "You know, when I was a kit -"

"A long time ago?" Creekkit interrupted.

Deerburr laughed at that. "Ages," he agreed. "But, we had two elders, then - we don't have any now, but they were cats who were too old to do their duties anymore."

"Too old?" Oakkit echoed, sharing a surprised look with her brother.

"Too old," the tom confirmed, nodding his head. "We're not always young and strong, like you two are."

Oakkit couldn't even imagine getting too old not to be a warrior anymore. "Do other Clans have elders?"

Deerburr hummed again, tilting his head. "I'm not sure if they do - but more likely than not, they do. Next time I'm at the Gathering, I'll ask around for you two, okay?"

"Okay," Oakkit mewed softly, and she could see Creekkit nodding his approval out of the corner of her eye.

"Anyways, they were nice to have around as kits. We used to go to their den and hear stories from them, and they used to tell us that this far North, it would snow nine months of the year and hail the other three. They said that living up here was worse than death, but we used to think that they only said that because the cold made their joints hurt so much."

"Were they not nice to have around when you weren't kits?" Creekkit asked.

"Not so much as apprentices," Deerburr told him. "Part of our chores were to clean out the elder's den - like what they do to the nursery - and to help them get rid of their ticks."

Oakkit felt her face pinch in disgust, but she had other things on her mind. "Up here?"

"Hmm?"

"You said 'up here', when you were talking about what the elders used to say."

"Ah, right," Deerburr meowed, nodding his head. "Most cats live much farther South, since it's easier to survive there, but _we_ don't. _We_ live in the North, where only the strong get to survive. If you wanted to travel South, it would be easy for you, since we're used to harder conditions and everyone down there is soft compared to us. It's warm for half of the year down there - half of the year, can you imagine that? I've heard that it's easier to find prey during their cold season, too." Her father paused, and the she-kit felt herself absorbing all the information he had given her before he continued. "Even the _kittypets_ are tougher up here - or, at least, they're smarter."

"If all of the Clans live in the North," the tortoiseshell pondered, "then why are we the only one called NorthClan?"

"Because we live the farthest to the North. Do you know what that means?" Oakkit and Creekkit hesitated, glancing at each other before they shook their heads. "It means we're the strongest of them all.

* * *

The nursery, Oakkit soon realized, was confining. Tanglewhisper and Deerburr kept reassuring her and Creekkit that their den was the place that would keep them safe and warm, but Oakkit wanted to leave. She wanted to go out on her own, explore camp, and not have her parent's worries hanging over her head. She couldn't wait to be an apprentice, where the only cat she would constantly have to be around would be her mentor (who _would_ her mentor be? Someone she got along with? She hoped so), and they would be doing their best to make sure that she could function on her own as a warrior of NorthClan.

She supposed that if there were elders, she could go to them, as Deerburr had told her and her brother that he had once done. Tanglewhisper had told her that the medicine cat, Featherripple, probably wouldn't mind entertaining them for a while, but Oakkit didn't want to go into a den stuffed with herbs. She wanted to enjoy the snow, the cold air, and watch the warriors and apprentices go about their days.

Now, though, Tanglewhisper had taken them outside for a lesson that she promised was important.

The three were situated right outside of the nursery's entrance. The largest tortoiseshell sat with her tail curled elegantly around her paws, and just like she had with Deerburr earlier in the day, Oakkit tried her hardest to copy the position - she knew that her father was a cat to be respected and looked up to and that she should learn from him, but if she was going to grow up into one of her parents she wanted it to be Tanglewhisper. Creekkit, though, wasn't even bothering with sitting. With snow up to his chest, he stared at awe up at the sky above him. Oakkit followed his gaze, staring up at the glittering lights so far above her head. The moon was almost a full circle, casting silver light into the camp and making the snow glitter prettily.

"That," Tanglewhisper explained, "is called Silverpelt. Each star in the sky represents a StarClan warrior."

"StarClan?" Creekkit mewed, confusion in his voice. The sound made Oakkit tear her eyes away from the stars and look at her brother, who was looking over his shoulder at their mother.

The queen purred. "Oh, right, you two haven't heard of StarClan before, have you?" Oakkit shook her head in response. "StarClan are our warrior ancestors. They're cats who've died, and now live above us."

"And every StarClan cat is a star?" Oakkit checked.

"That's right."

Oakkit looked back up at Silverpelt. "There's a lot of stars up there," she noted.

"Life is hard," Tanglewhisper informed. "Cats die every moon." There was a note of sadness and reluctance in her voice, like the information was something that she didn't want to be sharing.

"Will I go up there, one day?" Creekkit meowed.

"Most definitely," Tanglewhisper purred. "So will Oakkit, Deerburr, and myself."

The younger tortoiseshell's face screwed up in disgust. "Does Oakkit _have_ to go to StarClan?"

"Hey!" Oakkit protested, the muscles in her hindlegs bunching as she leapt at her littermate.

"I was just joking!" Creekkit laughed as they tumbled, and the laughter continued even as she managed to pin him. Her mother's amused laughter reached her ears, and she turned her head to look at her.

Amber eyes almost identical to Oakkit's own were lit up with happiness. Her fur looked a bit messy, but the white that was mixed in with the tortoiseshell made up for any ruffled fur. Her whiskers twitched in her apparent amusement as the tabby felt Creekkit's hindpaws press against her belly, pushing her away from him. A soft paw batted at her muzzle, and her tail flicked in irritation behind her. Before she could attack, though, teeth dug into her scruff and gently lifted her off of the ground. "Alright, you two," Tanglewhisper mewed, her voice muffled by the kit she was carrying, "back to the nursery."

"But _mom_!" Creekkit complained. The queen ignored him, turning tail and padding into the nursery. Quickly and easily, she settled Oakkit in their nest, and the two she-cats watched as an annoyed Creekkit stumbled onto the soft moss and feathers - but for all his earlier complaining, he cuddled up to his mother's pelt and closed his eyes in a matter of moments.

Surrounded by warmth, a stark contrast from the cold outside, Oakkit easily fell asleep.


	3. chapter two

_"You could be the king, but watch the queen conquer."_

"Okay," Creekkit began, his voice as serious as Oakkit had ever heard it. "I'll be Creekstar. You'll be Oakbranch, my deputy, and you don't like how I'm leading the Clan, and you've decided to try and get rid of my last life so you can be leader."

"I wanna be Oakstar."

The tom's ears perked in surprise, then his eyes narrowed at her, and he leaned forwards slightly as he spoke. "But you said that you didn't want to be leader when we were playing before!"

"I wanna be leader _now_ ," Oakkit told him. "I didn't _then_."

Creekkit sighed, as if he was a much older cat dealing with a much greater matter. "Okay," he mewed again, "what if you're Oakbranch, and I'm... Creekfang. Our leader, the brave and noble and renowned and amazing Deerstar, just died, and we're fighting over who should be leader next."

"Which one of us is the deputy?"

He thought for a moment. "Tanglewhisper," he decided. "But she's dead, too - both of them got killed by a fox."

"Wouldn't the medicine cat decide, then?"

"It's the medicine cat meeting," Creekkit explained after another moment. "Featherripple's gone."

"So wouldn't the other leaders decide?"

He scoffed. "The other Clans aren't strong enough to deal with NorthClan affairs - even if _perfect_ GlacierClan think that they could." Oakkit nodded her head, completely in agreement. "Besides, we'd have to go bring all the leaders together, and Featherripple would probably be back by then, so we might as well settle it by ourselves."

"Okay," the young tabby meowed, lifting her cold paws out of the cold snow and shaking off the clumps still sticking to her fur. "Bring it on, Creekfang!"

"I will!" Creekkit promised, launching himself at his littermate, and with clumsy pawsteps Oakkit evaded the attack. She narrowed her eyes, ready to leap forwards herself and cuff her brother over his ears, only to be stopped by a pale blue-gray paw stepping in between the two.

"I heard that you two were fighting for my position?"

Everyone seemed determined to interrupt her and her brother's games, lately. She craned her neck to look up at the she-cat, wondering if she should complain about it, only to pause as she recognized who it was.

Miststar was covered in a light shade of blue-gray fur; the kind that she would imagine a river or a stream threw into the air. Her eyes were a dark green, and they glittered with her amusement. There was a nick in one of her ears from a battle long past - at least, she thought it looked old. Just looking at her made Oakkit want to become an apprentice sooner, so that she would be able to do things for the Clan like she imagined Miststar had done.

"Hi, Miststar!" Creekkit greeted, his tail flicking behind him in a happy manner. "Did you come to see Tanglewhisper?"

"That's one reason," Miststar admitted, giving a small nod of her head. "Another was to check on how you two were doing."

Oakkit blinked up at her, surprised. "Really?"

"Really," her leader confirmed. "Kits are important, you know."

"Miststar?" Oakkit turned her head to look at the entrance of the nursery, watching as a sleepy-looking Tanglewhisper slipped outside. She approached the two kits and the leader, turning her head to offer a warm smile to her daughter when she mewed a greeting. "Are you going to move into the nursery, already?"

The she-kit perked, surprised at that particular piece of information, but she didn't get a chance to ask for herself before Miststar began to speak, sitting back on her haunches as she did so.

"I will someday, but not now," she informed. "For now, I still have a Clan to lead and Brokenpaw to train - I'm not going to immediately pass him off onto another cat when I finally decide to take an apprentice of my own."

Tanglewhisper nodded her head, letting out a soft laugh. "But once you _do_ move into the nursery, who's going to train him?"

"Deerburr or Lionrock, I think," Miststar told her. "I haven't quite decided yet."

"You'll let his kin train him?"

Miststar nodded his head. "They're both good warriors - even though Lionrock is still pretty young. I trust them not go easy on him, just because they're related." She let out a laugh of her own. "And it's not like I'm giving him to Tigerfoot or Stagfur, am I?"

"No, I suppose not," Tanglewhisper purred, her whiskers twitching.

"You're expecting?" Oakkit finally asked, her ears angled towards Miststar in interest.

The blue-gray she-cat nodded her head. "Littlenose's," she confirmed in a purr, a small smile on her face. "It's not too obvious now, but they should be here in a few moons."

Excitement bloomed in her belly, and she found herself shifting from paw to paw as a smile of her own curled itself onto her muzzle. Soon enough, her and Creekkit wouldn't be the only kits in the nursery, and she'd get to play with them and guide them around camp and spend her time with more than just her brother.

"Can they get here now, instead?" Oakkit requested.

Both Miststar and her mother laughed loudly, and the leader's tail swished in the snow behind her. "I'll see what I can do," Miststar promised, her whiskers twitching.

* * *

 _Around her, the forest was dark. Long, threatening shadows covered the ground, and she could barely discern the trees around her from the darkness. She could tell, however, that one tree towered far above the others. Upon further examination, she saw that it was an oak tree. With long, thick branches and leaves the greenest she'd ever seen, Oakkit sat in awe as she stared up at it. The stars in the sky above her glittered like snow in the light of the moon, but it only gave the barest amount of light to the snow that was currently dusted over the ground._

 _"Stay out of the shadows, Oakkit," a voice whispered._

A paw shook her awake. "Oakkit," a voice meowed, "Oakkit! You've gotta come see this?"

Oakkit peeled open bleary eyes, turning her head to look at Creekkit, who was doing his best to shove her to her paws. She let out a sleepy mumble that could have been translated into a "What?"

"Come on come on come _on_!" he urged, rather than answering. With a tired groan, Oakkit rose to her paws and stumbled after her brother as she ran out of the nursery.

"What's so important?" Oakkit grumbled.

"We captured a DraftClan apprentice!" Creekkit told her, and suddenly she felt much more awake and aware. "See, look!" He pointed with his muzzle towards the currently-unoccupied elders' den.

Sitting next to a larger warrior (who Oakkit recognized as Lionrock) was a gray tom. Most of his fur was a dark gray, but his belly, muzzle, and paws were a lighter shade of the tail was long, a lot like how Oakkit envisioned hers being like when she got older, despite what Tanglewhisper told her about growing into it. His eyes were amber, but they were pale enough that they took on an almost golden shade. With a distasteful look on his face, he lifted a paw and shook off the snow clinging to his fur.

Curiously, Oakkit sniffed at the air, but from where she was she couldn't catch onto a scent. "Let's go talk to him," she decided. Creekkit nodded his agreement, and with her head held high, the young tabby led the way towards the two cats.

Lionrock was a large tom, especially considering the smaller size of most Northern cats. Most of his fur was golden brown in color, but his muzzle and ears were white and his paws were a darker shade of brown. He had the same amber eyes as his little sister and mother, and now that she was able to study him closer, she could see the resemblance he shared with their father, as well. As soon as the warrior spotted his little siblings, his eyes narrowed at them.

"What are you two doing here?" he questioned.

Rather than answering, Creekkit sniffed at the air, his nose scrunching in response. "DraftClan smells weird," he declared. Taking a few sniffs of her own, Oakkit couldn't help but agree.

Lionrock seemed to hesitate for a moment. "...Yes, they do," he mewed.

"What's your name?" Oakkit asked, taking a few more steps forwards. Her older brother didn't stop her, but he didn't exactly look comfortable with it, either.

"Is it true that DraftClan can control wind?" Creekkit added from his place behind her.

The apprentice blinked at the two of them, one of his ears folding backwards in his confusion. "What?"

"Our dad told us that DraftClanners could control the wind," Oakkit explained, as if it was supposed to be obvious.

"I think he was messing with you," the stranger told them, a note of hesitancy in his voice. "And my name is Stonepaw."

"Okay, I think that's enough," Lionrock finally spoke, lifting one of his paws and gently nudging Oakkit away. "Go... play mossball, or something."

Creekkit's entire stance seemed to perk up in his excitement. "We haven't played mossball before!" he meowed. "Come on, Oakkit, let's steal some moss from mom!"

Oakkit nodded her head, tail swishing behind her. "Bye Stonepaw, Lionrock," she meowed, politely as she could before her and her littermate rushed back to the nursery. They slipped inside quietly, their eyes landing on a still-sleeping Tanglewhisper. They crept forwards, and once they were close enough Oakkit lifted a careful paw and started to pry moss out of the nest.

"No, not that stuff," Creekkit hissed softly, shaking his head. " _This_ stuff." He began to pry some softer and fresher moss out of the nest, and the two of them formed it into a ball before rolling it outside.

"We're supposed to protect the mossball from the other cat, right?" Oakkit checked. Creekkit nodded. "Then I'm guarding it first."

Creekkit heaved a dramatic sigh. " _Fine_ ," he meowed, drawing out the word into an almost-complaint and falling into a crouch. Oakkit situated herself on top of the mossball, her eyes narrowing as they fixed themselves on her littermate. The tom kit's tail flicked back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... and then he pounced, his paws flexing. Oakkit leaned backwards, but that didn't stop Creekkit from crashing into her. With her tail flicking wildly, she managed to stay balanced on her hind paws. She pushed back against her brother, forcing him away from both her and the mossball she was protecting. Creekkit huffed, then began to circle her slowly and carefully, before he flashed a paw forwards to push the mossball out from under her. With a leap, he captured the ball before his forepaws.

"Got it!"

Oakkit flicked an ear in irritation, and set to work to get the mossball back into her possession.


	4. chapter three

_"Never had I seen someone look so lost in their own home."_

The cold and long seasons that everything in the far North endured drove creatures to different states of desperation. For NorthClan, a creature invading camp for even a taste of the prey they had caught was something that happened too often for any cat to let their guard down around the fresh-kill pile; or, really, in the camp in general.

Oakkit had heard stories of it happening, of course, but she hadn't expected it to happen when she was still a kit. She hadn't expected it to happen when her and Creekkit were playing mossball, and when a DraftClan apprentice was waiting for Miststar to return to camp to decide what to do with him.

But it did.

She didn't get to see it enter camp, too focused on her brother and her game, but she did hear it once it was inside. She snapped her head around to look at it, her eyes rounded in shock and a sudden, overpowering fear.

The fox was larger than a cat would be, with white and bristling fur that blended in almost seamlessly with the snow. Amber eyes were glazed over with hunger - it was thin enough that Oakkit could see its ribs through its pelt. Instantly, cats were on it, scratching and clawing and biting, but the fox was starving. The cats attacking it didn't make it stop trying to get to the fresh-kill pile even for a heartbeat.

What did make it stop, though, was the sight of two unprotected kits, frozen in place and only able to stare.

As if she had been summoned by the fear her kits felt, Tanglewhisper stood protectively over her kits with a snarl that the tabby kit was sure could send the other four Clans running with their tails between their legs. When had she woken up and left the nursery? Oakkit wasn't sure, but she was oh-so-glad that she was here now.

The fox lunged, and Tanglewhisper countered with a strong strike to its muzzle. The fox staggered just slightly and shook its head, lifting a large paw and hitting the queen - with a surprising amount of strength for such a thin creature - on her flank, making her stumble and left her kits open. A warrior, one that Oakkit recognized at the back of her mind as Stagfur, clinging onto its fluffy tail with her claws and teeth didn't stop it from snapping its jaws at the kits.

Oakkit was frozen in place. Creekkit tried to leap out of the way, but that didn't stop the fox's jaws from clamping down on one of his hindlegs.

The fox lifted its head, shaking it back and forth and bringing Creekkit with it. If it were possible, Oakkit's eyes widened even more as she watched her brother. She barely processed a tortoiseshell shape clamping her jaws around the creature's neck and a gray one barreling into its side. With a cry of pain, Creekkit fell from the fox's jaws, and Oakkit didn't bother watching the rest of the fight as she rushed towards her brother.

"Creekkit?" She lifted a paw, nudging his shoulder gently. He coughed and let out a whimper in response. She sniffed, feeling tears burning in her eyes, but she did her best not to let them fall. "You gotta get up, Creekkit, you _gotta_. You won't be any fun when you're hurt, so you gotta get up!" She sniffed again, turning her head to look at the mangled mess that was his leg.

Blood covered all the fur that was left, and it looked like the fox had bit down so hard it reached the bone. His paw was facing the wrong way, towards the ground rather than forwards. She looked away, feeling sick to her stomach, her eyes catching onto his face. His green eyes were closed - was he asleep? Oakkit looked back at the fox, nearly dead, with the tear-blurred figures of Lionrock, Stagfur, Stonepaw, and her mother all standing over its body and watching as its blood stained the white snow.

"Mo-mom," Oakkit sobbed. Her voice sounded different when she was crying, she dimly noted, and she could feel the hot tears she had been trying not to let fall make their way down her face. The queen turned away from the fox, a small smile on her face as if she was ready to comfort her, only to tense and her face shift into a horrified expression as her eyes landed on her son.

"Where's Featherripple?" her voice came out in a yowl - something Oakkit had never heard from Tanglewhisper before - and she could see her claws dig into the snow. At the sound of his name, the ginger tom stuck his head out of the medicine den, eyes narrowed until they landed on Creekkit. The ear that had a chunk of it missing twitched (something that Oakkit had always found cool, especially for a medicine cat, but she didn't care about it now; not as long as he could help her brother), then his bright green eyes flicked back to the older tortoiseshell and sharpened.

"Bring him inside," he ordered, then disappeared back inside the den.

Her mother hurried towards her son, picking him up gentler than she had ever handled either of her two kits before, then made her way to the medicine den. Oakkit had the feeling that she wouldn't be allowed inside, so she stayed where she was, sniffling and crying. No cat came up to her, so she sat alone in the middle of camp, waiting.

She didn't know what she was waiting for, only that she was.

No time seemed to pass before Miststar and Brokenpaw padded into camp, and she paused at the entrance. Her eyes zeroed in on the fox that had yet to be moved out of camp. "What happened?" she asked, her voice filled with all the authority of a Clan leader, much different from how it was when she had been speaking with her, Creekkit, and Tanglewhisper in front of the nursery.

Lionrock padded up to her, explaining the situation to her in a quiet tone. Behind him, Stonepaw seemed to be nervous, his tail flicking back and forth.

"Tell Featherripple to come to me when he's done treating Creekkit," Miststar ordered. Lionrock dipped his head, and the she-cat turned her attention to the apprentice. Sniffing at the air, her eyes narrowed. "Why is a DraftClan apprentice in our camp?"

"We found him in our territory," Stagfur meowed. Flecks of blood from the fox had yet to be groomed from her dark brown pelt, and her yellow eyes were serious. "He didn't tell us why he was there, so we brought him to camp for you to decide." She glanced back at the apprentice, and after a moment of hesitation she spoke again. "...But he did help to fight the fox."

Miststar nodded her head, taking a few steps forward to stand in front of the gray tom. "What's your name?"

"Stonepaw," he responded quickly.

"And you helped my warriors fight a fox," she added.

He nodded. "Yes, Miststar."

Slowly, the blue-gray she-cat nodded her head. "Then as our thanks, we'll let you go home with no punishment from us," she told him. "But I can't promise the same for Cherrystar. Brokenpaw."

The brown tom perked up, attentive. "Yes, Miststar?"

"I'm trusting you to bring Stonepaw to the border. Don't cross, and wait there for a DraftClan patrol there. Be sure to tell them about him fighting the fox for us," she instructed. Finally, she turned her head to look at her apprentice, and she offered him a small smile. "Consider this your first assessment - just come back with prey once you're done."

An excited look lit up in Brokenpaw's yellow eyes as he nodded. He offered a respectful "Yes, Miststar," then gestured for Stonepaw to join him with his tail, and the two toms padded out of camp.

* * *

Oakkit wasn't sure how long she sat there. For a short while, Stagfur sat beside her, her tail curled loosely around her much smaller form, but she said nothing. Miststar sent a few concerned looks her way, but she found herself caught up in sending cats out to bury the fox and arrange something - patrols, she supposed - with Frostfang. As soon as Deerburr had padded into camp, he was told about Creekkit, and he had vanished into the medicine den.

Without Creekkit, there felt like there was nothing to do in camp.

It was only when she started to shiver that Tanglewhisper padded out of the medicine den, sitting down next to her and pressing their pelts together. Oakkit lifted her head, blinking up at her mother.

"Is Creekkit gonna be okay?"

Tanglewhisper sighed. "We don't know yet," she admitted, her voice soft. "Featherripple says it's in StarClan's paws, now."

"How important _is_ StarClan?"

"It depends on the cat." Oakkit followed her mother's gaze, her eyes landing on the moon, cresting over the top of the trees. "There're more important for medicine cats than for leaders, and more important for leaders than for warriors."

"How important are they to you?"

"I think the same as a lot of other cats do," the tortoiseshell told her. "Survival's hard. StarClan can't help us very much, other than occasional advice and give leaders their nine lives."

The two of them felt silent for a long while, staring up at the sky. Oakkit burrowed into her mother's pelt, turning her head to look up at her. "Do you think StarClan is going to let Creekkit heal?"

"Let's hope so, Oakkit," Tanglewhisper mewed softly. Carefully, she got to her paws, brushing her tail against the fur on her daughter's flank. "Now, come on. You need sleep."

Oakkit followed her without argument.


	5. chapter four

_"We are the children of the witches you weren't able to burn."_

A lot had changed since the fox attacked camp. Oakkit hadn't seen Creekkit since he was injured. Miststar had moved into the nursery, giving Brokenpaw's training to neither Deerburr or Lionrock - instead, Mosswing took over the tom's training. The most prominent change for her was that no cat woke her up in the mornings anymore.

It took half a moon for Oakkit's questions - _Is Creekkit gonna be okay_ and _Do you think StarClan is going to let Creekkit heal_ \- to be answered, and it wasn't the answer that she had been hoping for. With a look on his face that the kit didn't know how to describe, he called Tanglewhisper, Deerburr, and Oakkit into his den. As soon as they were settled, Oakkit spoke.

"Is Creekkit okay?" she asked, her eyes wide as she stared up at the ginger tom.

Featherripple hesitated. "He'll heal."

"And what does _that_ mean?" It wasn't a growl, but with how icy Tanglewhisper's voice was, it might has well have been. Oakkit's fur stood on end at the sound of it, and she watched as Deerburr leaned over and whispered something into his mate's ear. Slowly, the queen relaxed.

"His leg isn't healing properly, and I don't have the herbs to risk breaking the bone again so it can heal the right way," Featherripple explained, his scarred ear twitching. Oakkit didn't understand what it was that she was hearing, not completely, but she knew that she didn't like it. "He won't be able to walk properly anymore. We'll have to wait a little longer to be sure, but I don't think he'll be able to be a warrior."

"What?" Deerburr questioned. Oakkit couldn't see his face, but she could tell from the sound of his voice that he was surprised, and not a good kind of surprised, either.

"Maybe if he was an apprentice, and already had training, he would be able to," Featherripple continued, as if Deerburr hadn't spoken at all. "But as he is now, I don't think it's possible."

"But he _has_ to be a warrior," Oakkit meowed. "He wants to be one, so he has to be one."

Featherripple shook his head. "I'm afraid that's not how it works. StarClan are the ones who decided to do this to him."

"Then StarClan can make him a warrior, can't they?"

The medicine cat shook his head. "I'm sorry, Oakkit."

It took her a few moments to process, but once she did, her fur rose and her eyes narrowed. She got to her paws, her tail lashing in her anger. "Then I hate StarClan!" she declared, her voice coming out loud and squeaky. "I hate them, I hate them, I hate them!" She spoke like she was proclaiming it to StarClan themselves, repeating it to make sure that they _knew_.

She turned tail and stomped her way out of the den, not caring about the voices behind her calling her name.

* * *

 _Around her, the forest was dark. Long, threatening shadows covered the ground, and she could barely discern the trees from the darkness. She could tell, however, that one tree towered far above the others. Upon further examination, she saw that it was an oak tree. With long, thick branches and leaves the greenest she'd ever seen, Oakkit sat in awe as she stared up at it. The stars in the sky glittered above her like snow glittered in the light of the moon, but it only gave the barest amount of light to the snow that was currently dusted over the ground._

 _"Stay out of the shadows, Oakkit," a voice whispered._

 _The sound of flowing water met her ears, and her posture straightened, curious. She had been warned away from water - in the North, cats didn't know how to swim, and falling in during the cold season could lead to a short and cold death. She turned her head towards the source of the sound, watching the water in a quickly-moving river as it flowed past the large oak tree._

 _"Stay out of the shadows," a voice repeated._

Oakkit woke to the sound of a gasp. She lifted her head, blinking sleepily, but she wasn't met with the warmth of Tanglewhisper around her or the sight of her tortoiseshell pelt (she was probably with Creekkit again, she decided). Sleepily, she turned to look at Miststar. The leader's face was pinched in a painful expression, but she also seemed to be a bit confused and worried, her eyes pinned onto her round belly. "Miststar?" she asked. The blue-gray she-cat lifted her head to look at the tabby. "Are you okay?"

Miststar's mouth opened and closed, then she winced. Oakkit pushed herself into a sitting position, concern starting to gnaw at her. "I think," the older cat finally spoke, "that I'm kitting."

"You mean... _now_?"

Miststar nodded her head. "Now," she agreed. "Would you mind fetching Featherripple for me?" Oakkit shook her head, springing to her paws and bounding out of the den. Her eyes fell onto a set of pawprints leading from the nursery to the medicine den, confirming where Tanglewhisper had gone off to. She set her paws in her mother's, hurrying into the medicine den and slipping inside.

"Featherripple?" she called. Her ears twitched at the sound of murmuring, one voice her mother's and the other the medicine cat's. After a moment, the tom padded out from behind a bend in the den, tilting his head down at her.

"Yes, Oakkit?"

"Miststar says that she thinks she's kitting."

Featherripple nodded his head, then looked over his shoulder. "Tanglewhisper?" he called, and after a moment he continued. "Come help me with Miststar. Find a stick, and get some wet and dry moss." The tom disappeared in the direction he had come from, and she listened to the sound of cats shuffling around until both cats reappeared. Tanglewhisper padded towards the entrance, carrying a stick and some moss, and Featherripple followed at her heels with a muzzle full of herbs.

Curiously, Oakkit padded in the direction that the older cats had come from, poking her head around the corner. Curled up in a small ball, with his flank slowly rising and falling, was Creekkit, sleeping alone in the den. She crept forwards, and the closer she got, Oakkit could see his injured leg better. It was wrapped in cobwebs, and it splayed out from the rest of his body. The position he was in looked uncomfortable, but she didn't think about it too much. She raised a paw and gently nudged her littermates shoulder.

"Creekkit," she murmured, "wake up."

The young tom let out a groan, lifting his head slightly to look up at her. His eyes looked groggy with sleep, and he blinked a few times to clear them. "Oakkit?" he questioned. She nodded.

"Miststar's kitting," she told him.

"Miststar moved into the nursery?"

Oakkit nodded her head. "About half a moon ago." She tilted her head. "Have they not told you anything?"

Creekkit hesitated for a heartbeat. "Only that I might not be a warrior," she meowed. At the mention, Oakkit's tiny and sharp claws unsheathed and her teeth gritted.

"You _will_ be a warrior," Oakkit reassured with the confidence of a senior warrior. "If StarClan won't make you one, then we'll just have to do it ourselves."

"How would we do that?" Creekkit folded an ear backwards, his eyes narrowing along with the movement.

"We'll get the apprentices to teach us," Oakkit decided. "They can do that, right? And we'll learn how to fight and hunt, and when Miststar and Featherripple see us, they won't have a choice but to make you a warrior."

Creekkit just stared at her for a long moment. Then, a smile slowly appeared on the tom kit's face, and he began to purr. "Let's do it," he agreed, nodding his head.


	6. chapter five

_"I am the daughter of a king that forgot my name."_

She hated the north. Snow kept sticking to her fur, cold swept through her thin coat of fur, and she didn't know if she'd ever be able to shake the fear of water that she had once swam through confidently. A quarter moon ago, a tom had dived into the river after a fish, and once he surfaced he had frozen to death. Cats, born and bred in the south, were dropping like flies just from the cold.

Once, she had suggested that cats _couldn't_ live this far north - just look at what it was doing to them. In response, her father had only snarled in her face, his claws unsheathing, growling that _he_ was the King and they would do as he said. Respectfully, she had dipped her head and apologized, ignoring the frustration that was building up inside of her and the urge to dig her claws into the ground.

"You," a voice called. It was unfortunate, to her, that she recognized it. She sat down, holding her head high as a large, pitch black tom padded up to her. "You're four moons old, we should be traveling faster. I won't let your tiny legs slow us down.

She dipped her head to him, submissive, even though she wished for nothing more than to claw him across the face. "I'm sorry, father."

"You should be," he meowed, satisfied. "We won't slow down for you again. Either you keep up, or you get left behind." She bowed her small head, her eyes trained on her father's paws, before he turned tail and padded away.

Her ears twitched as another cat approached her, and she lifted her head to look at him. The tom appeared to be a few moons older than her, and the only color in his pelt was a few strands of gray fur. He lifted his tail in a half-wave, an action she didn't return. He paused beside her, blinking his blue eyes. "I don't see how you're related to him," he told her. "I mean, I guess that you look alike, but we all do here."

She turned her head look in the direction the King had padded away in, but he had already disappeared into the crowd of black-pelted cats. "Do you think he was always like that?" she questioned.

"I hope not," the tom mewed, faking a shudder that she only saw out of the corner of her eye. She quirked a small smile in response to it. "I don't want to think about him as a kit." Slowly, she nodded her head in agreement.


	7. chapter six

_"We're a new breed rising, with fire in our eyes. We don't fear anything, because we've already died."_

Oakkit fell asleep next to Creekkit. She was curled up in the nest, her pelt pressed against her brother's - and for a heartbeat, they were back in the nursery. Tanglewhisper was curled around the two of them, and Mistystar hadn't moved in yet, but when she peeled open her eyes she saw the interior of the medicine den. Parting her jaws in a large yawn, she wondered if Miststar had finished her kitting, yet. Slowly and carefully, she stood and left the nest, and once she was sure that she wouldn't wake the tortoiseshell she raced out of the den.

In the clearing, Oakkit discovered something that she had never seen before. Every cat in the Clan was currently in camp, eating - gathered in small groups, they shared a piece of prey between themselves. The fresh-kill pile was nearly empty, and while Miststar and Frostfang would usually be strict about who gets prey and when, no cat seemed to care.

"Oakkit!" a voice called. "Over here!" She turned her head to look over at a group of apprentices, and she slowly padded over to the group of three. She elected to settle next to Brokenpaw, who dipped his head in greeting to her as she settled.

"Are you okay?" Coalpaw, a jet-black tom with a set of paws and tail that matched the color of the snow. He was large for his age, and his eyes were a bright, emerald green. "You were in the medicine den for a while."

"I was just visiting Creekkit," Oakkit assured. "Is Miststar done kitting yet?"

Meadowpaw nodded her head happily. She was a beautiful, light brown she-cat with sea-green eyes, and Oakkit might have been jealous of her for her appearance if it wasn't for the fact that she was still growing, and still had plenty of time to turn into a pretty cat. "That's what the celebration's for!" she told her. "There's three kits - a tom and two she-kits."

The young tabby's eyes widened. " _Three_?" she echoed.

Brokenpaw nodded, a look on his face that she couldn't quite place. "There was a fourth," he explained. "Featherripple and Tanglewhisper couldn't get him warm fast enough."

"I heard that Miststar lost a life," Coalpaw added.

Oakkit's ears drooped. "Oh."

"We still have three more kits, though," Meadowpaw meowed, an uplifting note in her voice. "Maybe they'll make good den mates, too, once they're old enough."

Coalpaw tilted his head at her. "Tanglewhisper and Miststar might let you meet them," he suggested. "They're you're denmates, after all."

"Okay," Oakkit mewed, nodding, "I'll do that."

"Once you figure out their names, tell us!" Meadowpaw urged. She got to her paws and nodded again.

"Bye," she mewed, taking a moment to listen to the goodbyes the other cats offered before she trotted off towards the nursery. Tanglewhisper, Deerburr, Tigerfoot, and Littlenose were all settled just outside of it, sharing a hare. Oakkit stopped in front of the group of warriors, but the only one she paid any mind to was her mother.

"Can I meet the kits?" she asked.

Tigerfoot narrowed his green eyes at her, just slightly. "The apprentices didn't put you up to this, did they?" he questioned.

"No," Oakkit assured with a small shake of her head.

"Are you _sure_?" Littlenose teased, flicking an ear.

"They suggested it," she admitted, "but I'm doing it 'cause I want to."

"Alright," Tanglewhisper mewed, rising to her paws. "But you have to be quiet. It wasn't easy for Miststar, and both her and the kits are resting." Oakkit nodded, and the queen padded inside the nursery with her daughter on her heels.

Miststar was sleeping, her tail curled around moss and three sleeping balls of fluff. Occasionally, one of them would let out a tiny mewl, or move in their sleep. Awed, Oakkit slowly padded up to the nest, looking at the three kits carefully. The first kit her eyes landed on was a deep brown tom. His fur was even more fluffy than her's and Creekkit's, and he shared that trait with his littermate. The next it was a pale, silvery-gray kind of color that reflected the light filtering in through the entrance. The last was a blue-gray she-kit with a few, small flecks of brown in her pelt.

"Why're they so fluffy?" Oakkit asked, her voice low.

Tanglewhisper shrugged her shoulders. "That's just how kits are. The older you get, the more and more sleek your fur gets," she responded, voice just as quiet. With her tail, she gestured to the brown tom first, then the silver she-kit, then the blue-gray one. "These are Brackenkit, Gracekit, and Riverkit."

"Brokenpaw said that one of the kits died," Oakkit commented.

Her mother let out a soft sigh. "That's true," she murmured. "His name was Seedkit."

"Coalpaw said that Miststar lost a life."

"That's also true."

Silence settled in the den, and Oakkit kept her eyes pinned on the kits. Was she that small, before? It was hard to picture herself being that small, with eyes that wouldn't open just yet and almost completely unaware of the world around her.

"Would you like to have a meal of your own?"

Oakkit snapped her head up to look up at Tanglewhisper. "Really?" she meowed, a bit too loud. Her mother shushed her, and in a softer voice, she repeated the word.

"Yes, really," the tortoiseshell confirmed in a purr. She rose to her paws, swishing her tail in a way that silently told Oakkit she was supposed to follow her. The two cats padded out of the den and up to the fresh-kill pile, where she picked up a chipmunk and set it down in front of her daughter. "Go share that with Creekkit," she ordered. Oakkit nodded, picking up the meat in her teeth before she raced into the medicine den.

Creekkit was still awake when she padded up to his nest, and he lifted his head curiously. She set the chipmunk in front of him, settling down her haunches as he reached forwards and sniffed at it.

"Tanglewhisper said we had to share it," she meowed.

"But it's just for us?"

Oakkit nodded her head. As if to demonstrate, she dipped her head and took a bite out of the meal, chewing as she pushed it towards Creekkit with a paw. He took a bite of his own, and the two of them set to work at making sure that they ate as much of the chipmunk as they could.


	8. chapter seven

_"You're already hurt. You're already in pain."_

 _"Stay out of the shadows, Oakkit."_

 _"Stay out of the shadows."_

 _She knew that she wasn't supposed to go near water, the fact that it was dangerous had been pressed into her for moons now, but she felt pulled towards the river, anyways. Slowly, pawstep by pawstep, she crept towards the water. She looked over the lip of the earth at the cold, cold water - water that she was sure was supposed to be frozen over, but wasn't. Her reflection wasn't there. Instead, she saw two distorted shapes in the water. One of them, she could recognize, the name on the tip of her tongue but stubbornly refusing to come to mind. The second was unfamiliar, but they were larger than than her, and they had black fur._

 _"Stay out of the shadows, Oakkit." The voice came from behind her._

With a yawn, Oakkit opened her eyes. She was surprised to find that she was still in the medicine den, lying in Creekkit's nest. She lifted her head, blinking up at Featherripple, and she could see Tanglewhisper and Deerburr sitting near the wall of the den. Creekkit's snickering reached her ears.

"Enjoying your nap, I hope," Featherripple mewed dryly, his scarred ear flicking. Oakkit stumbled to her paws, her whiskers twitching in a sudden onset of nerves.

"Sorry," she mumbled. Tanglewhisper flicked her tail in a silent summon, and she quickly bounded over to her parents, sitting down in front of them so that she could have a clear view of whatever they were gathered in the den for. Featherripple watched her with an amused look on his face, but once she had settled down, his attention shifted back to Creekkit.

"Today, we'll be taking off the cobwebs and starting on physical therapy," he explained. "It won't be fun, but it's going to be important." Creekkit nodded his head, his green eyes shining. The ginger tom stood and took one step into the nest. With careful claws and teeth, he peeled the cobwebs away from the kit's injured leg, and once they were off she heard Tanglewhisper let out a soft gasp.

The angle of the paw had been fixed, so the leg looked more natural, but as Oakkit looked at it she noticed that it still bent a bit too far inwards. Large, angry scars were left in the leg from where the fox's teeth had dug into Creekkit's flesh, and with his small size they looked ginormous.

"Woah," Oakkit breathed, her wide eyes filled with awe. Already, her brother had a cool scar - she would have called it unfair, if it was gained in different circumstances.

Creekkit's eyes were narrowed, and there was an expression on his face that Oakkit couldn't place. Slowly, the toes of his flexed, then relaxed. "Why'd that take so long?" he asked. "It didn't take that long before." He stretched a forepaw out in front of him and flexed his toes, demonstrating the difference.

"You have to get used to your leg again," Featherripple answered. "We'll start with standing up."

* * *

It took a moon. One moon for the medicine cat to come to a conclusion - although Creekkit had been improving steadily, his progress was starting to slow, and it was happening too soon for him to be able to walk normally again. With no prior training, there was no way for the young tortoiseshell to be a warrior.

The now five-moon-old Oakkit was infuriated. She _knew_ that Creekkit could be a warrior. They just had to try. With enough practice, Creekkit could become as good a warrior as Miststar was. With a firm nod of her head, the tabby started to making her way to the medicine cat, but she was interrupted by Miststar's kits.

"Where are you going?" Brackenkit asked, his wide green eyes questioning as they stared up at the larger kit.

"To see Creekkit." At that, Gracekit lifted her head.

"I've only seen him a few times," she mewed, her voice quiet. "Does he live in the medicine den?"

Oakkit thought for a heartbeat. "He won't for much longer," she told them.

"Is it true that a fox injured his leg?" Riverkit asked, ears angled towards her and obviously curious. Oakkit nodded.

"He helped chase it off," she lied, holding her head high and nodding her head seriously.

"Really?" Gracekit asked. Oakkit nodded. The other she-kit's blue eyes were wide with an emotion that she couldn't place - some form of amazement, maybe?

"He must be the strongest kit in the Clan, then," Brackenkit meowed. Riverkit scoffed.

"No, he's not," she told him, in a tone that said that the information she was sharing should have been obvious. " _I'm_ the strongest kit in the Clan."

Oakkit ignored her, and continued making her way towards the medicine den. She entered with a bounce in her step, padding down the now well-practiced path from the entrance of the den to Creekkit's nest. To her surprise, the tom was already awake. His head was resting on his paws, and he blinked his green eyes as his littermate entered the den. "Hey, Oakkit," he greeted.

"Come on," she meowed, her tail flicking behind her and determination in her amber gaze. "I don't think that Willowfang has taken Coalpaw out, yet."

Creekkit tiled his head at her. "What?"

"I told you that if StarClan won't make you a warrior, then we will," Oakkit reminded. "And StarClan isn't making you a warrior."

A large smile spread itself on the tom's face. He stood, getting to his forepaws first. He braced his good leg under him, then twisted to stand fully. The two kits made their way out of the den as fast as Creekkit could limp, and the tom had to pause at the mouth of the den to adjust to the light. "Where's Coalpaw?" he asked, looking around camp.

Oakkit's eyes instantly went to the apprentice's den, until she found the black-and-white apprentice. She paused for a moment when she saw Gracekit next to him, speaking about something, but she wasn't close enough to hear what. "Over there," she meowed, beginning to pad over to the two cats. She heard Creekkit followed after her, and she watched as Gracekit spotted the two older kits and cut herself off. Coalpaw followed her gaze, flicking his tail in an almost-wave to the two of them. Oakkit lifted her tail and waved in return, and once they were close enough he spoke.

"Hello," Coalpaw meowed, tilting his head as his eyes went to the tortoiseshell. "What're you doing out of the medicine den, Creekkit?"

"We want to learn battle moves, or how to hunt," Oakkit told him. "We were wondering if you could teach us."

Gracekit's ears perked, and she stood, lifting herself onto her hind legs with all her natural grace and placing her forepaws on Coalpaw's flank (at first, Oakkit thought that 'Gracekit' was a strange name to have, but she quickly saw how much the she-cat fit the name - which, she supposed, was quite lucky for the younger she-kit).

"If you teach them, will you teach me?" she asked. Coalpaw hesitated for a moment, glancing at Creekkit, before he gave a slow nod of his head.

"Sure," he meowed. Creekkit bounced in his place, easily yet awkwardly landing on his three stronger legs. Oakkit let out a happy purr, and Gracekit gave Coalpaw a smile that took over her whole face.


	9. chapter eight

_"Because we're all just kids who grew up much too fast."_

Creekkit and Riverkit thought that it was a great idea. Brackenkit, while much more reserved about his thoughts, decided he liked it. Both Gracekit and Oakkit had a bad feeling.

Maybe it was just because of how well Creekkit and Riverkit got along. Riverkit was almost bursting with energy - she was constantly moving and twitching and doing something, even if she, herself, didn't notice that she was. Creekkit was the same - before he was injured, he was always trying to get Oakkit to play one of his games with him, and after the fox attack physical therapy was the only time that he could let out his energy. Even though he was exhausted at the end of it, he would often be found complaining about wanting to do something not too much later. Now that Featherripple was letting him out of the medicine den outside of his physical therapy, he was flourishing in expelling all of his pent-up energy.

It was Riverkit, though, that suggested the idea to sneak out of camp. But it was Creekkit who made the plan.

That was how Oakkit ended up watching as Riverkit and Brackenkit padded towards the dirtplace, a dark feeling in her gut to match the dark sky above them. Still, though, she padded through the entrance in the dirtplace with Creekkit at her side. The feeling of dread was forgotten as soon as she saw the towering trees up close.

The trees were white, blending in beautifully with the snow-covered ground. Patches of dark brown wood peeked through the white of the forest, but the world was so pale the brown looked black. Riverkit already had her tiny and sharp claws dug into one of the trees, a determined look on her face as she scaled the tree. With one steady paw at a time, she made her way up to the first branch, only to miss the mark and fall back down to the earth. The snow cushioned her fall, allowing her to quickly stand up and shake the snow out of her fur, no real injuries given to her.

"I'll conquer the tree someday," Riverkit meowed, beginning to pad deeper into the forest, leaving the other kits to prepare for her. "Just you wait, I'll be the best tree climber in all five Clans."

"Like how you'll be the best fighter in all five Clans?" Brackenkit commented dryly.

"And the best hunter?" Gracekit added.

"I heard swimmer, once," Creekkit meowed.

"I think she meant _floater_ ," Oakkit corrected. "If she got into water, she'd freeze before she could dry off.

"I would _not_!" Riverkit argued. "I heard that Riverstone and Somberheart of SnowClan, and Redrain of FreezeClan can swim. Mom told me!"

"Isn't Riverstone a medicine cat?" Creekkit asked. "Why would a medicine cat need to swim?"

"Maybe he likes it," Gracekit suggested quietly, her gaze drifting down to her paws.

"Why would a cat _like_ swimming?" Brackenkit asked.

"Maybe there's water herbs," Oakkit pondered. She turned her head to look at her littermate. "We should ask Featherripple."

Riverkit shuddered, slowing down and falling into step with her littermates. "Featherripple kinda scares me," she shared. "Have you seen that _scar_? What kind of medicine cat has a scar like that?"

"Miststar said he was a warrior before he was a medicine cat," Gracekit mewed.

"She said she got it when he was a kit, too," Brackenkit added. Oakkit and Creekkit glanced at each other, the young tabby folding one of her ears backwards in confusion. The tortoiseshell only shrugged.

The kits padded farther into the white forest, going silent. The familiar scent of NorthClan surrounded them, reminding them whose territory they were in at all times. It didn't take long for Creekkit tire and start panting, not used to walking so long on his injured leg. Him and Oakkit sat down to take a break, and the other three sat down with them, not wanting to venture deeper into the forest without the older kits.

"My warrior name's gonna be Riverspirit," Riverkit declared, nodding her head seriously as the group rested. "It _has_ to be."

"Why?" Brackenkit asked, tilting her head.

"Because of my personality!" Riverkit answered, as if it was obvious. "And I've already decided that Gracekit is gonna be Gracewing. She doesn't talk much, and she's light on her paws, so that has to be it. Brackenkit, you're gonna be Brackenclaw, because of your long claws."

"I'm gonna be Creekfang," Creekkit meowed. "And Oakkit is gonna be Oakbranch."

"We don't know that," Oakkit told him.

"Yeah, we do!"

"We used those names for games, Creekkit."

"So?" The tom smiled at her. "Warrior names are warrior names!"

"What about mentors?" Brackenkit asked, his eyes flicking from cat to cat.

"I want Miststar!" Riverkit immediately claimed.

Oakkit shook her head. "Miststar was Brokenpaw's mentor," she explained. "If he's not a warrior by then, then Miststar will go back to being his mentor." Riverkit's ears flattened.

"But she's always so busy with Frostfang," the she-kit complained. "We _never_ get to see her."

"Maybe Frostfang will be your mentor?" Creekkit suggested. "You _are_ Miststar's kit, after all."

Riverkit blinked. "Maybe..." she considered. Silence spread across the kits once more, and Gracekit yawned.

"I'm bored," she complained, getting to her paws. "I'm going ahead," she decided, turning tail and padding off into the snowy forest.

"Gracekit, wait for me!" Riverkit called, bounding after her littermate. Not wanting to be left behind, Brackenkit quickly followed after his sisters. Creekkit stood, but his injured leg locked and he fell to the ground as soon as he tried to walk. Oakkit stood at her brother's side, her ears twitching, her eyes going from the direction the kits had gone in to her brother.

She couldn't just leave Creekkit alone, but she also didn't want to leave the barely-a-moon-old kits out in the middle of NorthClan territory.

The three kits were her friends.

But Creekkit was her brother.

But the three kits were so young.

But Creekkit couldn't move.

She looked down at Creekkit, then at the forest. In the snow, she could see the tiny pawprints that Gracekit, Riverkit, and Brackenkit had left behind. She looked back at Creekkit, who was struggling to get to his paws again, but failed to. With a sigh, she sat down - she couldn't leave her brother alone.

"What're you doing?" Creekkit hissed. "Go after them!"

"I can't leave you alone!" Oakkit argued in a growl. "They're in a group, they'll be fine." Her voice shook as she said it, and doubts instantly entered her mind.

"They don't know the territory!"

"We don't, either!" Resolutely, Oakkit sat down and looked at her brother. "We'll just have to wait for them to come back, or for warriors to find them."

* * *

While Oakkit was waiting, she watched the stars. Some of them were brighter than others - Oakkit wondered if those were more important cats, or if they were the newer StarClan warriors. The sky itself was in shades of black and purple, and seemingly thousands of stars coated the sky. Tanglewhisper had said that life was hard for them, and Oakkit believed it; especially now, as she looked up at the sheer amount of stars above her.

She narrowed her eyes as she stared at one particular bright star. _Was that there a moment ago?_ she wondered.

It wasn't until a patrol of warriors had come crashing through the underbrush that she got her answer. That star _hadn't_ been there a heartbeat ago.

And that star represented Riverkit.

She was told that she had fell into a river. She was told Miststar had taken Brackenkit and Gracekit back to camp, along with Riverkit's body to hold vigil. She followed the warriors back to camp, walking next to the one that held Creekkit in his jaws. When she laid eyes on Riverkit's body, her pelt left darkened and spikey from the water, fur frosted by the cold, body still.

The stillness haunted her.

She didn't get any sleep that night, and the next morning, she went to see Creekkit, and she did her best to ignore, but not break, the sudden glum and hush of camp.

"Do you want to see if Brokenpaw will train us?" she asked.

Creekkit shook his head. "I..." he began, having to trail off and go silent for a few moments before starting again. "I'm fine with being Featherripple's apprentice.

Oakkit blinked once, twice. "What?"

"I don't mind being a medicine cat, Oakkit," he repeated, then he offered her a purr. "Just you wait, I'll be the best medicine cat in the five Clans."

* * *

 _Around her, the forest was dark. Long, threatening shadows covered the ground, and she could barely discern the trees from the darkness. She could tell, however, that one tree towered far above the others. Upon further examination, she saw that it was an oak tree. With long, thick branches and leaves the greenest she'd ever seen, Oakkit sat in awe as she stared up at it. The stars in the sky glittered above her like snow glittered in the light of the full moon, but it only gave the barest amount of light to the snow that was currently dusted over the ground._

 _"Stay out of the shadows, Oakkit," a familiar voice whispered._

 _The sound of flowing water met her ears, and her posture straightened, curious. She had been warned away from water - in the North, cats didn't know how to swim, and falling in during the cold season could lead to a short and cold death. She turned her head towards the source of the sound, watching the water in a quickly-moving river as it flowed past the large oak tree._

 _"Stay out of the shadows," a familiar voice repeated._

 _She knew that she wasn't supposed to go near water, the fact that it was dangerous had been pressed into her for moons now, but she felt pulled towards the river, anyways. Slowly, pawstep by pawstep, she crept towards the water. She looked over at the lip of the earth at the cold, cold water - water that she was sure was supposed to be frozen over, but wasn't. Her reflection wasn't there. Instead, she saw two distorted shapes in the water. One of them, she could recognize, the name on the tip of her tongue but stubbornly refusing to come to mind. The second was unfamiliar, but they were larger than her, and they had black fur._

 _"Stay out of the shadows, Oakkit."_

 _She turned on her heels, expecting to see a large and strong and imposing shadow of a cat, but instead she saw a familiar face with stars in her fur. Her mostly blue-gray, partially brown fur was well-groomed, and her green eyes carried a new light of wisdom that they had never possessed before._

 _"Riverkit?"_

 _Riverkit was silent for a long moment. For another. Then, with a flick of her starry ear, she spoke, and it sounded like hundreds of other cats were speaking with her._

 _"When shadows threaten the forest, one tree will tower above the rest and reach for the light. But, when the night surrenders to day, remember the river before it runs dry."_

* * *

 **fun fact - Riverkit was originally called Aspenkit (love you Aspen but it seemed too depressing to have a character named after you just fuckin' die)**


	10. chapter nine

_"They have raised you to be the Queen of Ashes."_

She wanted to go back south. She wanted a warm nest, with cats spreading her eight-moon-old name in hushed whispers coated in fear. She wanted the power power that their fear gave her. The north, she realized, was just as deadly, if not more so, than her. It was no _fun_. Every cat they came across, while just as dead as the ones from the south, had put up a fight that just made them _irritated._

The group paused as the King did, and the tom raised his tail. "Do you smell that?" he asked. Cats raised their heads, opened their mouths, and sniffed at the air around them. "Cats, and lots of them." the King answered for them.

Excitement curled itself in her belly, adrenaline flooded her veins. Finally, _finally_ , she would get to express all her frustration and anger that the King had built up in her, get to cleanse herself in the blood she would shed. The thought of all those cats, just waiting for her to tear into them made a purr want to break itself free from her chest - but she knew better.

A cat did not purr in front of the King.

"These cats will fear the Shadows!" the King yowled. The cats behind them let out a victory cheer, their voices splitting the carefully-crafted silence apart.

"You," the King mewed, voice quiet so she would be the only one to hear. She dipped her head to him, not meeting his eyes from her place at his side. "You and the other young will have another moon to train. Then, we attack."

"Yes, father," she meowed, her claws itching to unsheathe themselves, but she knew she had to be patient. Soon, she would be able to cleanse herself of all her frustrating and annoying emotions.

And if that meant leaving only the dead in her wake, then so be it.


	11. chapter ten

_"She would make herself a reckoning, she would rise."_

Much like they had when Creekkit was injured, things had changed after Riverkit's death. The most obvious change was that Miststar had started acting colder. Tanglewhisper had told Oakkit and Creekkit in a hushed, almost secretive voice, that she was only acting that way because she couldn't show the Clan (and especially not the other Clans) that she was sad. She only showed her old self to Brackenkit and Gracekit, and to Littlenose, but even then it wasn't exactly common. Creekkit had been spending more of his time in the medicine den. He hadn't left Oakkit by herself, but a lot more of it had gone towards Featherripple.

And Oakkit kept having that dream. It was starting to get annoying, by now - Creekkit constantly spoke of his dreams of catching hares and mice in the snow-coated forest. Why couldn't _she_ have a dream like that? Why wouldn't Riverkit give her a night off from that stupid prophecy? She had it memorized, by now, but it was the _last_ thing that she wanted to have memorized.

At first, it had seemed like something fun to try and figure out. How would shadows threaten a forest? How could a tree reach for the light? What river? Now, after the nth time of hearing it, Oakkit would happily rip her ears off if she had to listen to it again.

"Why're you looking like that?" Creekkit asked, snapping her out of her thoughts, his head tilted at her. She didn't know what he meant by "looking like that", but she decided that it might be better for her not to know. "We're becoming apprentices today!" he added, twitching his tail.

The two kits had grown a lot. While most of their kit fluff had left, some of it still remained around their ears - though, that wasn't to say that it still retained a long-furred and fluffy quality, as that was necessary to keep warm. Both of them had been groomed to perfection by Tanglewhisper, then sent to sit patiently in front of the Spirit Tree and wait for Miststar to star their ceremonies.

Creekkit's tortoiseshell pelt had developed a clear pattern; one that constantly laid itself out through his fur, and his body was broad, with wide shoulders and paws that would have made him a perfect warrior, if his circumstance allowed for that. His hind leg was still covered in scars from the fox, and he still walked with a limp, but his green eyes were bright with enthusiasm.

Oakkit's tabby fur had developed a clearer, more wavy pattern as it became more sleek, exchanging it for the almost-blurry effect her kit fluff had given her. She had grown into her paws, but her tail was still long and whip-thin. Her amber eyes had become darker in color, only slightly different from her mother's and Lionrock's, and while Creekkit had grown broader she had become more slender.

Carefully, Oakkit wrapped her tail around her paws. "I know," she meowed. "I'm just thinking."

"About?" Creekkit urged, before his eyes narrowed. "Is it about me becoming Featherripple's apprentice, again?"

Quickly, Oakkit shook her head. "No," she assured. Truly, she had come to terms with that - while it was hard for her accept at first, she gradually understood Creekkit's want to help cats in his own way. She searched for an answer to give him, one that wasn't _I keep dreaming about our dead friend and it's really starting to annoy me_ , and she found one in her thoughts from the night before. "We've been waiting for this since we knew what an apprentice was, and our ceremony is nothing like we pictured."

Creekkit thought for a heartbeat, before he offered her a smile. "It's better," he purred. Oakkit couldn't help but to give him a soft smile of her own.

"May all cats strong enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the Spirit Tree for a Clan Meeting!" Miststar yowled. The young cats sat ramrod straight, their eyes focused on their leader. Slowly but surely, warriors and apprentices (along with Featherripple, Brackenkit, and Gracekit) gathered around the soon-to-be apprentices.

"Cats of NorthClan," Miststar began. "Today, we welcome two new cats to the path of a Northern cat. May StarClan bless them with strength and wisdom. Creekkit, step forwards."

The tortoiseshell stepped forwards, looking up at Miststar with eager eyes.

"Creekkit, you have reached your sixth moons and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this moment on, and until you earn your medicine cat name, you will be known as Creekpaw." She turned her eyes towards the medicine den. "Featherripple, I believe that you are ready for your first apprentice. You received excellent training from Dewfeather, and you haven proven yourself to be loyal to your Clan and caring to all those in your care. I expect you to teach Creekpaw everything that you know."

Both cats turned to watch as Featherripple made his way through the crowd, the warriors parting for him. He padded up to Creekpaw, dipping his head and touching his nose to the younger tom's before the two cats turned and padded back into the crowd, settling down at the front of it to watch her own ceremony.

"Oakkit, step forwards."

Oakkit looked back at Miststar, getting to her paws and taking a few steps closer to the Spirit Tree.

"Oakkit, you have reached your sixth moon and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this moment on, and until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Oakpaw." Miststar's eyes turned the crowd. "Tawnyrain, I believe that you are ready for your first apprentice. You received excellent training from Rushriver, and have proven yourself to be both an excellent fighter and clever in all respects. I expect you to teach Oakpaw everything that you know." Oakpaw turned her head to watch a she-cat padding out of the crowd, dipping her head to Miststar before she turned her attention to her new apprentice.

Tawnyrain was a black-and-gray tabby, her stripes much thinner and straighter than Oakpaw's own, but the older cat's pelt seemed to have more than her's. Her eyes were a bright green, and they held a soft light to them that instantly made Oakpaw trust her and decide that she would be a good mentor. The two touched noses, then padded into the crowd as they started cheering.

 _"Creekpaw! Oakpaw! Creekpaw! Oakpaw!"_

Oakpaw was sure that she would remember the sound for the rest of her life.

"Follow me," Tawnyrain meowed to her, turning and padding towards the entrance of camp with her new apprentice on her heels.

"Oakpaw!" a voice called. She paused mid-step, looking over her shoulder to see Creekpaw with his new mentor and their parents. He flicked his tail in a silent summon, his face practically begging her to go over and join them. She looked back at Tawnyrain, who hadn't slowed her stride in the least.

"Sorry, Creekpaw," she called back to him. "I'll see you when I get back!" With that, she turned and bounded after her mentor, falling into stride with her once she'd caught up.

They padded through the woods without speaking. The forest was silent, apart from the sound of their pawsteps in the fresh coat of snow that covered the ground from last night's snowfall. Tawnyrain and Oakpaw's pawprints were the first to tarnish it. Finally, Tawnyrain broke the silence.

"We're going to be learning how to hunt, today," she announced.

Oakpaw's ears perked, and she tilted her head. She'd grilled Coalpaw, Meadowpaw, and Brokenpaw the day before, wanting to know what was in store for her, and learning to hunt on the first day wasn't something they'd brought up - but how would _she_ bring it up? "Meadowpaw told me that Mountainfrost gave her a tour of the territory, first," she decided on.

"I'm not Mountainfrost, am I?" Tawnyrain asked, and Oakpaw could pick up on a slight hint of a teasing tone in her voice. The new apprentice shook her head anyways. "That's for a different day. Once you become an apprentice, it's your duty to help feed the Clan. You can't eat until you've fed the Clan, and you'll be punished if you don't bring anything home. So, before we learn to fight, or learn the territory, we become masters at hunting." Oakpaw nodded her head - it made sense, and she was determined to be the best student that she could for her mentor.

Tawnyrain paused as they entered a clearing, turning to face Oakpaw. "Show me your best hunting crouch," she ordered. Instantly, Oakpaw obeyed, keeping her long tail straight and her paws evenly placed. Her ears perked as she listened to the crunch of snow, indicating that her mentor was circling her.

"Your hindpaws are too far forward," she informed. Quickly, Oakpaw adjusted. "Now you're off balance."

They continued. Tawnyrain pointed out every flaw, big or small, that Oakpaw had in her hunting crouch until she deemed it perfect. The younger tabby watched as her mentor sat back on her haunches in front of her. "Stay there for a while. let your muscles remember the position for you," she advised.

Instead of staying silent, the older tabby took the opportunity to lecture. She told her about the different animals that they hunted, and the different was one had to hunt them. Hares you had to hunt silently, their hearing more sensitive than most. Mice you had to hunt lightly, their whiskers closer to the ground then a cat's and able to pick up on more. Squirrels and chipmunks, though rare, you had to hind down wind, because of their sensitive noses.

"Try stalking," Tawnyrain ordered. "Like you would hunt a hare." Carefully, Oakpaw lifted a paw, then sit it down as quietly as possible and repeated the process, again and again and again, going in circles until Tawnyrain was satisfied.

"Stalk like you would hunt a mouse," she commanded. She placed a paw down lightly on the ground, but her mentor shook her head. "All your weight was in your paw. Try again." Again, Oakpaw repeated the process until Tawnyrain was satisfied and ordered her to stop.

"How would you stalk a squirrel or a chipmunk?" she asked. Oakpaw began to take a step forwards, but Tawnyrain shook her head. "Tell me, don't show me." _Hares can hear well, mice have sensitive whiskers..._ she internally listed.

"Like a hare," she meowed, "but downwind, so they couldn't smell me."

Tawnyrain nodded her head in approval. "Good." She flicked her tail, and Oakpaw took it as a sign to rise from her crouched position. She did so, shaking out her pelt and watching as the older tabby got to her paws, as well. "You aren't a master at something until you've done it ten thousand times, and you have plenty of times left to go. Follow me - let's go find some prey to test you on."

Eagerly, Oakpaw followed her mentor deeper into the forest.


	12. chapter eleven

_"I don't want to be soft anymore. I want to be bloody knuckles and shards of glass and I want people to be afraid of hurting me."_

Tawnyrain was patient and calm, but she was also strict. She had set her mind on the fact that Oakpaw wouldn't be going back to camp until she had made her first catch, and she didn't let up on that.

The sun was setting, Oakpaw's paws were sore, she kept yawning, and she'd missed two hares already. Still, Tawnyfang pressed on, continuously sniffing the air and urging her apprentice to do the same. Her paws dragged across the snow, leaving long tracks in her wake. The warrior paused, using her tail to block Oakpaw's path. "You can catch this one," she whispered. "Remember, stay light on your paws."

Oakpaw nodded her head, falling into the hunter's crouch for the fourth time that day. She focused her weight onto her haunches, creeping forward in the direction of the mouse her mentor had detected. Once she deemed herself close enough, she pounced. She was prepared for yet another failure, but she was surprised to feel a soft and warm body under her paws. She ducked her head to bite at its neck, only to pause halfway - it looked like her landing on it had killed it already. She picked it up in her teeth, holding it like it was something much more fragile.

She turned her head to look at her mentor, a purr rising in her throat in her pride and a burst of energy filling her from her accomplishment. Tawnyrain smiled at her, nodding her head in approval. "That's a fat one. Well done," she praised. "We still have to get my catch, though." Oakpaw nodded, holding her head high as her mentor padded through the forest.

It didn't take long for Tawnyrain to find her prey, and she caught her ermine with more ease than Oakpaw had caught her mouse. With their prey in their jaws, the two she-cats padded towards camp. The young tabby still held her head high, but the energy she had gotten from her catch was quickly fading.

The journey back towards camp felt shorter than when the two had left - but that was probably just because the pair had been wandering around the territory all day. She didn't bother to think about it much, and it left her mind entirely when she slipped through the entrance of camp and was greeted by her brother. He approached her from where had been settled by the medicine den, his tail lifted in a wave that Oakpaw returned.

"You were out there for a long time!" he commented brightly. "Did you catch that?" Oakpaw nodded her head, another wave of pride filling her. Tawnyrain flicked her tail at her apprentice in a silent _follow me_. Oakpaw obeyed, Creekpaw padding along at her side as the two tabbies deposited their catches.

"Get something to eat for yourself, too, and make sure to get a good rest," Tawnyfang advised. "We'll be leaving camp at dawn tomorrow." Oakpaw nodded to her mentor, watching as she turned and made her way to the warriors' den, then she turned her head to look at Creekpaw.

"Have you eaten yet?" she asked. Creekpaw gave her an almost sheepish look.

"No, but I wanted to - Featherripple made me eat earlier," he told her. "I think Meadowpaw was waiting for you, though. Featherripple said he wanted me back in the den once you got back." Oakpaw nodded her head.

"What did he teach you today?" she questioned, curious.

"Just some herbs. It was kinda boring. I get to leave camp in a few days, though!" The tom's tail flicked. "I've gotta go. See you, Oakpaw!" He turned around, making his way back to the medicine den. She turned her head back towards the fresh-kill pile, picking up a lemming and padding towards the apprentice's den. She spotted Meadowpaw lying just outside of the den, curled up with her head pillowed on her forepaws. Drowsily, the light brown she-cat lifted her head as she approached.

"Oh, hey Oakpaw," she greeted. "Tawnyrain finally brought you back to camp?"

Oakpaw nodded her head, setting the lemming down in between them.

"You caught something?" she asked.

Again, Oakpaw nodded. "That's why it took so long."

The older she-cat took a bite out of their shared meal, and she spoke in between chews. "What happened? What did she teach you?"

"She taught me how to hunt, and she didn't want to come back until I caught a mouse," Oakpaw shared.

"Well, you'll be happy to know that Brokenpaw and I made a nest for you," Meadowpaw purred.

"Thank you," the tabby mewed, dipping her head along with the words. "She said that we're leaving at dawn tomorrow," she added, taking a bite of the fresh-kill for herself.

Meadowpaw shook her head. "You're gonna need the strength of the whole Clan," she declared, her whiskers twitching just slightly. The two apprentices fell silent as they ate, only speaking again once they had finished their meal and slipped into the apprentice's den.

"Good night, Meadowpaw," Oakpaw meowed.

The brown-furred she-cat nodded her head. "Night, Oakpaw," she purred, heading towards her nest. The tabby headed towards the only open nest, situated between the entrance of the den and the nest Coalpaw was sleeping in. She fell into the soft and fresh moss, falling asleep almost immediately.

* * *

 **Tawnypelt37:** with what i had planned and written out for Tawnyrain, i was pretty amused reading that. but i hope you can enjoy her character even more, now! you deserve it for offering me so many characters to torture!

 **Redtail1192:** it is indeed! HTTYD is something i enjoy very much.

 **I-really-hope-not:** mysterious cat's POV will get a lot more interesting in future chapters - at least, i sure hope it will!

 **Luckyclaw of ThunderClan:** is this soon enough for you?

 **Hazelstar of LightningClan:** thanks! i tried to characterize Oakpaw and Creekpaw as much as i could - and hopefully they've become pretty interesting characters. i'll get around to reading your story as soon as i feel bored enough to start up reading a new fic, and i'll tell you what i think about it in the reviews!

 **The Cartographer:** deal with it.

 **Hatakefire:** thanks! i'm pretty proud of how it's turning out, myself.

 **Critics United (guest):** found in the FAQ of the critics united forum -

 _"Do CU members leave anonymous reviews?_

 _No CU member leaves anonymous reviews. It is unfair to leave a review that may leave the author with questions and not leave a way for them to get in touch with the author who wrote the review."_

check out my super sleuth skills. author and detective extraordinaire.


	13. chapter twelve

_"I hope you find a way to be yourself someday, in weakness or in strength."_

Hunting was hard. It was patience and intelligence and agility all in one, and it took days for Oakpaw to be able to catch anything as easily as Tawnyrain had caught the ermine on her first day of training. However, she did manage to reach a standard of hunting that Tawnyrain thought was good enough for the pair to go on a tour of the territory - a territory that Oakpaw had already mostly seen, but she was excited for a break from the days filled with only hunting.

"All five Clans have a large territory," Tawnyrain explained. "You've been almost everywhere in ours, but today you'll see the whole thing; but don't think that this gives you an excuse not to hunt. If you don't catch anything before we go back to camp, you won't be eating tonight, and you'll be punished."

"Yes, Tawnyrain," Oakpaw mewed, her tail flicking behind her. The warrior nodded her approval.

"We're going to the river first. Make sure not to fall in," she ordered. Unbidden, memories of Riverkit's vigil came to her mind, and she felt a bone-deep kind of unsettled as she thought of her stillness. She did her best to shove the memories down and focus on the tour. "It marks our border with SnowClan, and then it goes into FreezeClan territory. It's the reason we don't have too much trouble with SnowClan, even though they're right next to us."

"I heard that Riverstone and Somberheart could swim," Oakpaw commented. "And a cat called Redrain can, too."

Tawnyrain nodded. "That's true," she said. "But they can't go swimming along - they need cats around to help them dry off fast enough, and they can't stay in the water for too long." The older cat leapt onto a fallen tree in their path, flicking her tail in a silent signal for her apprentice to join her. Oakpaw bunched her muscles and leapt, landing easily on the tree's trunk. Her claws dug into the wood under her, keeping her stable as her tail lashed from side to side behind her from balance, and the motion stopped entirely as she sat down.

A fox-length away from the fallen tree was the river, and beyond the river the young tabby could see an approaching patrol. "Shouldn't we leave?" Oakpaw questioned, looking up at her mentor. "They might think we're about to trespass.

Tawnyrain shook her head. "We have a good relationship with SnowClan," she meowed, before her green eyes narrowed. "In fact, I think I know those cats."

Oakpaw felt her stomach flip as her nervousness grew, but she sat up straight like her mentor was doing. Her tail, dangling off of the tree, started to swish from side to side. The cats in the distance grew larger and larger, until they were standing across the river from the two she-cats.

The leader of the patrol was a long-legged, dark gray tom. His muzzle was shorter than most, and his eyes were a pale blue color. He offered the two of them a smile, dipping his head to Tawnyrain, and Oakpaw saw her mentor copying the action out of the corner of her eye. Next to him was a smaller tom - his long fur was mostly gray, aside from his black ears and tail tip. His eyes were hazel, and he glanced between the two NorthClan cats with a curious but wary look on his face. Behind the two toms was a brown tabby she-cat. White spots covered her muzzle, and her eyes were a bright amber. She offered both cats a smile.

"Hey, Tawnyrain," the dark gray tom greeted. He gestured to the younger tabby with his head. "Who's this?"

"Did you finally get yourself an apprentice?" the she-cat asked, tilting her head slightly.

Tawnyrain nodded. "I did. This is Oakpaw, I'm showing her the territory." At the sound of her name, Oakpaw dipped her head to the SnowClan patrol, watching as her mentor gestured to the long-legged tom, the she-cat, and the black-and-gray tom in order. "Oakpaw, these are Stormrunner, Fawnstep, and Stormrunner's apprentice, Graypaw."

"With you teaching her, I'm sure she'll become a great warrior," Stormrunner offered, smiling. "Granted that she works for it, of course."

"We's already shaping into a good hunter," Tawnyrain bragged.

Fawnstep folded an ear backwards in confusion. "You taught her to hunt before you showed her the territory?" she asked.

Tawnyrain nodded her head. "That's how I was taught," she defended.

Graypaw faked a small shudder, and he mouthed "sorry" to the other apprentice. The corners of Oakpaw's mouth twitched as she suppressed an amused smile, but she flicked her ear in acknowledgement of the comment. The tom smiled at her from across the river, then turned his attention back to his mentor.

"We should get going," Fawnstep mewed to Stormrunner. The older tom nodded, dipping his head to the two NorthClan cats - an action that they returned.

"Goodbye Tawnyrain," he meowed.

"Goodbye Stormrunner, Fawnstep," Tawnyrain return.

The two SnowClan warriors continued their way along the border, but Graypaw stayed behind for a heartbeat, his eyes moving from the two warriors to Oakpaw. Tawnyrain rose to her paws and turned, leaping off of the tree and padding deeper into NorthClan territory. Oakpaw was about to follow after her mentor, but Graypaw's voice stopped her.

"See you at a Gathering?"

Oakpaw tilted her head at him, and after a heartbeat she nodded her head. "Alright," she mewed.

"Oakpaw!" Tawnyfang called.

The young tabby dipped her head to Graypaw, then leap toff of the tree. As she dashed after her mentor, she heard Graypaw's voice call out "Good luck, Oakpaw!"

She found herself with a small smile on her face in response to the well-wish.


	14. chapter thirteen

_"Let me go, I don't want to be your hero."_

For the first time since Oakpaw had started her training,s he failed to catch something before her and Tawnyrain went back to camp. It wasn't for a lack of trying, though, as she had been able to find a mouse but she had failed in the actual catch. Tawnyrain hadn't looked disappointed, or ashamed - instead, she caught her own mouse and led the way back towards camp. Before they entered, the older tabby paused, holding her tail in front of her to stop at her apprentice.

Tawnyrain set the mouse at her paws so she could speak, then she turned her green eyes to Oakpaw. "This is the first time you've come back to camp without a catch," she told her, "and it won't be the last. Have you ever seen what happens to cats who come back to camp without prey?"

Oakpaw shook her head. "Tanglewhisper never let us see."

"Unfortunately, you're about to find out," her mentor mewed. "Just know that every cat, even Miststar, has gone through it." Tawnyrain picked up her mouse again, leading the way into camp. The younger she-cat felt dread start to build up in her, but she began to make her way after her mentor and slipped through the entrance.

She paused at the center of camp, watching as Tawnyrain placed her mouse on the fresh-kill pile before she padded towards the nursery, avoiding the playing Brackenkit and Gracekit as she headed for the nursery.

"Oakpaw!" The young tabby turned her head to look at Creekpaw, who was sitting next to Featherripple and waving his tail. A few different herbs were spread out at their paws. He looked up at his mentor and mewed something to him, to which the medicine cat nodded in response. The tortoiseshell rose to his paws and limped towards his sister. "What'd you do today?" he asked cheerfully.

"Tawnyrain showed me the territory," she told him. "I met some SnowClan cats."

"Really?" Creekpaw's eyes almost shined. "Who?"

"Stormrunner, Fawnstep, and Graypaw - Tawnyrain knew them." She let out a small purr. "Graypaw and I agreed to meet at a Gathering?"

"You'll introduce me, right?" Oakpaw nodded. "Oh, you know what _I_ found out today?" Creekpaw looked proud of himself as he spoke.

"What?"

"There's no such thing as water herbs," he informed. "Featherripple says that Riverstone is just crazy."

"Oakpaw!" She snapped her head in the direction that her name was called - Miststar, Tawnyrain, and Frostfang all stood in front of the Spirit Tree. She flicked her tail in a goodbye to her littermate, bounding towards the three cats.

Frostfang was a cat that Oakpaw hadn't seen much. Usually, he would sort out patrols (and go on his own), and make sure that every cat who had or couldn't contribute got their fair share of fresh-kill. He would also help to guard the pile, and to make sure that no cat would take food that they didn't deserve. His fur was most gray, and he had a white chest, muzzle, and paws. His eyes were blue.

"Tawnyrain told us that you didn't catch anything," Miststar meowed. "Is that true?"

Oakpaw swallowed, nervous, but she nodded. "Yes, Miststar," she answered quietly.

Frostfang slowly turned his eyes from Oakpaw to his leader. "Miststar, go easy on her," he urged softly. "It's the first time that she hasn't brought prey back, and Tawnyrain has been turning her into a good hunter."

"All the reason to go harsher, Frostfang. I haven't given any apprentice an easy punishment before, and I won't start now," Miststar argued, but she didn't take her eyes off of the young cat in front of her. The blue-gray she-cat lifted a paw, sharp claws unsheathed and glinting in the light. Before Oakpaw knew it they had struck her shallowly across her face. She could fell small and warm drops of blood come out of the stinging wound, but they didn't fall down her face.

"You won't be treated, or eat anything tonight," Miststar ordered. Oakpaw nodded her head in response. "Leave us." Quickly, she obeyed, turning tail and rushing off. She wanted to disappear into the apprentice's den, but before she could reach it Creekpaw stepped in front of her, his eyes wide.

"Are you okay? What was that for?" Glancing up at them, she could tell that he was suppressing the urge to send Miststar a glare.

"I didn't catch anything."

"I know how to treat you! C'mon -"

"You can't," she interrupted. "It's part of the punishment."

Creekpaw's ears lowered, but he still tried to offer her an encouraging smile. "What about something to eat?" he posed. "That would make you feel better!"

"I didn't catch anything," she repeated.

His smile fell, and he let out a small groan. "I hate this punishment."

Oakpaw gave her littermate a soft purr. "I'll be fine, Creekpaw," she promised. "If I couldn't handle this, how could I be a warrior?"

He thought for a moment. "I guess," he finally mewed. "But I'm _not_ happy about it!"

Oakpaw felt her stomach grumble, and she turned her head to look around camp. There were plenty of cats scattered around and eating, Brokenpaw and Coalpaw among them. "I think I'm going to go to sleep," she decided. "Night, Creekpaw."

"Night, Oakpaw," he responded. She flicked her tail towards him before she padded to the apprentice's den, slipping inside and curling up in her nest.

* * *

 _She opened her eyes, staring at a forest floor covered in snow. She didn't look up - she knew what she would find, and she didn't want to see it._

 _"Stay out of the shadows, Oakpaw."_

 _She dug her claws into the soft ground hidden under the snow, gritting her teeth. She didn't even pause to think about how strange it was that the earth was soft; in theory, she knew it happened, but it was never something she had witnessed. "Leave me alone, Riverkit." It took effort not to hiss the words._

 _The sound of the river entered her ears. She didn't want to look at it. She was tired, and she just wanted to sleep without having to have this dream again. What did she even have to do with it, anyways?_

 _"Stay out of the shadows."_

 _"Riverkit, please," she pleaded. "Just let me sleep."_

 _"Stay out of the shadows, Oakpaw."_

 _"Stop it!" she yowled, snapping her head up to look at the kit with tears of frustration in her eyes. Riverkit looked impassive - something that disturbed a part of Oakpaw, something deep down inside of herself, but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment. "Just stop it! Let me go! I don't want to be part of some prophecy!"_

 _Riverkit was silent for a few moments. Then she spoke._

 _Was she even listening to her in the first place?_

 _"When shadows threaten the forest, one tree will tower above the rest and reach for the light. But when night surrenders to day, remember the river before it runs dry."_

* * *

 **I-really-hope-not:** nope, Tawnyrain is going pretty hard on Oakpaw. she definitely wants to make life easy for her, but she also wants to make sure she turns into a good warrior.

 **Pandean:** Stonepaw makes an appearance in one of the most recent chapters i wrote - speaking of him, i don't think that you told me what what you wanted his warrior name to be. also, you're right, i don't believe in it, but there are a bunch of different companies or groups or whatever that rent out the space that we get paid for. it's also basically training people to be camera operators, and it's not too bad; church events (Sundays and things like VBS) are the only things we don't get paid for, but we have to work those to be able to work the paid events.

 **Snow's Leaves:** suffer.


	15. chapter fourteen

_"As long as I'm around, nothing bad is going to happen to you."_

A rabbit was sitting in front of Oakpaw's paws. Hunger gnawed at her stomach, but she knew better than to eat the fresh-kill; the recent scratch marks on her face attested to that.

"How do you hunt a rabbit?" Tawnyrain asked.

"Quietly," Oakpaw answered.

"A mouse?"

"Lightly."

"A squirrel? Chipmunk?"

"Downwind."

"An ermine?"

"Like a mouse."

"A lemming?"

"Quickly."

Tawnyrain nodded her head in approval. "Good. Bury that. Today, you start your fighting training." The warrior turned, padding away.

Oakpaw jumped to her paws, excited. She picked the hare up in her jaws and dug up some of the snow until she reached the cold, hard earth underneath. She set the rabbit in the hole, then kicked the snow back on top of it. She picked up on her mentor's trail easily, and she followed her pawprints and scent to a clearing a short distance away.

"As you know, NorthClan is the strongest of all the Northern Clans," her mentor explained. "Cats from the South, while larger than us, tend to be faster. Their pelts are thinner, and they have less fur weighing them down. Their largest cats are faster than us - even GlacierClan, the Clan farthest to the South, is the fastest Clan of the five."

"Are we the slowest?" Oakpaw asked.

Tawnyrain shook her head. "SnowClan is. The snow in their territory clumps onto their fur and adds to their weight. However, we are still a Clan of slow cats, so our fighting strategy depends on using our enemies strengths against them and making sure that we can last against our opponents for as long as we can.

Oakpaw nodded, shifting her weight from paw to paw in her excitement.

"You're learning the basics of fighting, first. Today, that means dodging." Without warning, the warrior shot out a paw, cuffing Oakpaw's ears with it before she duck her head. "I've seen you and Creekpaw fight when you were kits, I know you can do better than that." Again, Tawnyrain lifted her paw, starting to strike. Oakpaw lowered her head swiftly, but her mentor's paw still brushed against the tops of her ears.

"Try again," she commanded. The apprentice lifted her head, waiting for Tawnyrain's paw, and once she struck she dipped her head down farther than she had the last time she'd tried to dodge the attack. She could feel the air moving above her head in response to the quick movement of the warrior's paw. Oakpaw lifted her head once more, only to duck it back down as fast as she could with Tawnyrain attacked with her other paw. Again, she felt the air shift above her ears.

"Good job," Tawnyrain praised.

Slowly, and much more cautiously, Oakpaw lifted her head. "Do you think I'd be able to win at a Gathering, Tawnyrain?"

"Not yet," the older tabby told her, "but someday. I think the better question is if you'll be _going_ to the next Gathering."

Oakpaw nodded. Creekpaw, she knew, would most likely to be going to every Gathering as the medicine cat apprentice, but it was much less certain for herself. The full moon was approaching quickly, she had only just started her training, and she wasn't guaranteed a place on the patrol. She had to _earn_ it.

"But," Tawnyrain added, lifting a paw and striking, but missing her apprentice as she ducked, "you're learning quickly. If Miststar is impressed, she might take you."

Oakpaw nodded again, but she did her best not to get her hopes up.

* * *

"You look tired, Oakpaw," Brokenpaw noted as the youngest warrior apprentice laid down beside him. Her ears twitched at his comment.

"I _am_ tired," Oakpaw mewed, her whole head moving while she spoke due to its position on her paws.

"What did Tawnyrain have you do?" Coalpaw questioned, head tilted.

"Battle training."

"Meadowpaw pushed a mouse towards her. "Eat," she ordered, her voice almost uncharacteristically strict. "Now that you've started battle training, Frostfang might start putting you on patrols."

"She just started," Brokenpaw argued, even as Oakpaw reached out and pulled the mouse closer to her with a paw, but she didn't start eating just yet. "She's not going on patrols anytime soon."

"Training's even worse if you're tired," Meadowpaw countered.

Coalpaw nudged Oakpaw's shoulder gently with his paw. "Looks like we both have strict mentors," he commented.

Oakpaw lifted her head, one of her ears folded backwards in confusion as she looked at the older cat. "Willowfang doesn't seem that bad."

"You've obviously never spoken to her," Meadowpaw joked.

"The only cat she's nice to is Coalpaw," Brokenpaw added.

The black tom flicked an ear. "She cares about me, that's all," he defended.

"You two are best friends!" the other tom argued. "The rest of us get the sharp end of the stick."

Oakpaw tilted her head at Brokenpaw. "Your mentor used to be Miststar," she remembered. "Wasn't she strict?"

"Well, she _was_ , but..." he trailed off, hesitant. "You remember how she was before Riverkit died."

Oakpaw nodded her head slowly. "Yeah," she murmured, looking back at her still-uneaten mouse.

Meadowpaw let out a groan. "Come _on_ , Oakpaw, do I have to force you to eat that?"

The younger she-cat, feeling a little bit like she was a kit again and being scolded by Tanglewhisper, quickly shook her head and took a bite out of her mouse.

"Better," Meadowpaw meowed with a firm nod of her head, holding it high in an almost celebratory manner.

"What are you? Her mother?" Coalpaw questioned.

"I could be."

"I'm fine with Tanglewhisper, thank you."

The other apprentices let out a 'mrow' of amusement, making Oakpaw's ears warm in embarrassment.

* * *

 **NootalyaSafari:** she wasn't hurt _too_ bad, but it'll be something she remembers. that's the point of the punishment.


	16. chapter fifteen

_"And she would bow to no one."_

An annoyed groan came from the other side of the clearing as the she-cat was thrown across it. Her black fur was clumped together with melted and unmelted snow, and her green eyes were filled with the frustration she pelt.

A full-grown black tom padded forwards, stopping in front of her as she climbed to her paws. "How many times have I shown you this move, Nettle?" he asked in a growl.

"Twice," Nettle meowed, lifting her head to look the tom in his blue eyes. The rest of the cats in the clearing, both her age and moons older, were staring at their own paws, refusing to look at the tom's angered face.

"And when should you have mastered it?"

"The first time I tried."

"And where should you be looking?" the tom smirked as he spoke.

Nettle's eyes narrowed. "Don't forget that my mother is dead now, Ash," she growled. "And I'm the only daughter of your King. Do you know what that makes me?"

Ash sneered at her. "You're only Queen until one of your brothers gets a mate," he meowed.

"Unless I get one first."

He ignored her. "For now, I'm your Trainer, which makes me superior."

" _I'm_ the superior one," Nettle growled. "As your Queen, you'll respect me. As your Trainee, you'll teach me, not scold me."

Ash's face soured. "Night!" he snapped, not looking away from the she-cat in front of him. The tom with blue eyes and gray hairs in his pelt rose to his paws, but he didn't look up. "Spar with Nettle until she gets the move right. I don't care how long it takes."


	17. chapter sixteen

_"Terrible things happen to good people every day. Consequently, I am not one of the good people. I am one of the terrible things."_

Oakpaw's ears flicked back against her skull as she dodged the attack that was thrown her way. When she landed, she had to catch her balance - wasted time that her opponent took advantage of. She barreled into her side, knocking the air out of her lungs and making her fall into the soft snow that covered the ground.

"You have to stay on your paws, Oakpaw," Tawnyrain reminded. "That's what NorthClan cats are best at."

"Yes, Tawnyrain," the apprentice meowed, climbing back to her paws and shaking out her fur. "I want to try again."

Her mentor purred, a tiny smile on her face. "Good. Get back into position." Oakpaw complied with the tabby's orders, slipping into her battle stance easily.

With narrowed eyes and tensed muscles, the young tabby watched as her mentor rushed towards her. She leapt backwards, like she had before, but had no need to catch her balance this time. Instead, when Tawnyrain attempted to rush at her from the side, she lifted a paw and struck her across the muzzle. The warrior acted as if she was dazed - as she had explained a cat would be in a real fight - Oakpaw swept her forelegs out from under her.

With a satisfied look on her face, the older tabby got to her paws and sat. "Much better," she praised, before she turned her head upwards to look at the sky. "Go and hunt before you head back to camp," she ordered. Oakpaw dipped her head to the older she-cat before she bounded out of the clearing, her senses alert for any prey.

Her tail flicked behind her as she weaved between the snow-clad trees, her paws dipping silently into the snow on the ground. She paused at the sound of rustling undergrowth, watching as a group of cats pushed their way through it.

The cat at the head of the patrol was a familiar, dark brown she-cat with yellow eyes. Stagfur blinked at the lone apprentice, ears twitching backwards in confusion. Behind her stood Meadowpaw and her mentor, Mountainfrost - a light brown tom with darker patches in his pelt, white spots of fur and a similarly-colored tail, and a pair of hazel eyes. Beside him and his apprentice was a pure black, sleek-furred she-cat with dark amber eyes named Ravenstone, carrying a hare in her jaws.

"Oakpaw?" Stagfur asked. "What are you doing out here? Where's Tawnyrain?"

"She told me to hunt before I went back to camp," Oakpaw told her.

"Why don't you join us?" Mountainfrost suggested, turning to look at Stagfur. "We could always use more hunters on patrols."

"I don't see why not," Stagfur meowed, flicking her tail. "Come on, Oakpaw, let's go," she ordered. The apprentice nodded, falling into step next to Ravenstone as the patrol moved on. for a moment, she bounded forwards so she was next to Meadowpaw instead.

"Where are we going?"

"The DraftClan border," Meadowpaw murmured to her. "Then we're doubling back." Oakpaw nodded, falling back next to the black-furred warrior.

Oakpaw sniffed at the air, the scent of ermine filling her nose. She dropped into a crouch, and she heard more than she saw the rest of the patrol stop and watch her pull herself forward on light paws. She waited in place for a heartbeat before she pounced, her paws landing on the creature and pinning it to the ground. She dipped her head and bit down on the back of its neck, feeling as it went limp. She lifted her head and padded back to the patrol, head held high to show the ermine off.

"Good catch!" Stagfur praised in a purr. Ravenstone nodded her agreement, but her stony expression didn't change. Oakpaw happily padded along with the patrol as they continued hunting, finding a new place at Meadowpaw's and Mountainfrost's heels.

"Has Tawnyrain taught you about distance hunting, yet?" Mountainfrost asked, looking over his shoulders. His dark eyes were filled with something that Oakpaw couldn't quite place. The apprentice shook her head.

Meadowpaw's head jerked upwards in excitement. "Can I show her?" she requested.

Stagfur shrugged her shoulders. "I'm fine with it, as long as Mountainfrost is."

The tom seemed to hesitate for a heartbeat before responding. "When we get to the DraftClan border," he decided. "If you're going to show it to her, you might as well do it right."

* * *

Oakpaw watched as Meadowpaw crouched, hidden in the undergrowth of NorthClan's forests with her ermine settled at her paws. The scent of DraftClan was strong her - stronger than anywhere else on the territory, though it did occasionally blow past the scent line. It was a scent that she recognized less from her tour of the territory, and more from her meeting with Stonepaw on the day that Creekpaw had been injured. She couldn't remember that day well - only the fox's white and bristling fur, the smell and the redness of Creekpaw's blood, and the DraftClan scent that the apprentice carried.

The memories almost made her shudder, but she repressed the feeling.

"What is she hunting for?" Oakkit whispered to Stagfur, not taking her eyes off of Meadowpaw for a moment. "Aren't we too close to the border to hunt?"

"You'll see," Stagfur whispered back.

More time passed. Eventually, Oakpaw watched as her fellow apprentice leapt, landing just on the other side of the border that separated the Clans' two territories. She hurried across the scent line a heartbeat later, a squirrel hanging from her jaws. Oakpaw felt her amber eyes widen.

"What was that?" she asked, breaking the silence. "We can't just hunt on DraftClan territory!"

"Quiet down," Ravenstone growled at her.

"Let's go," Stagfur meowed, rising to her paws. Angry as she was, Oakpaw wasn't neglectful enough to forget her ermine, and she picked it up and hurried after the older she-cat as she lead the way deeper into the territory. She stopped at a tree with a thicker trunk than most on their territory, settling down and turning her attention to the young apprentice.

"Okay," Mountainfrost began, "ask whatever you want to ask."

"Why are we hunting on DraftClan territory?" Oakpaw questioned. "It's _DraftClan_ territory! It's _stealing_!"

"We need all the prey that we can get," Ravenstone meowed, lifting a paw absently and beginning to groom it. "DraftClan always assumes that the wind blows our scent over the border.

Mountainfrost narrowed his eyes at the darker-pelted cat. "Because we tell them that," he pointed out.

"They're the ones stupid enough to believe it."


	18. chapter seventeen

_"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."_

"Oakpaw!" The apprentice lifted her head in response to her name, surprised to see Deerburr pausing in front of her. "How has your training been? I haven't been able to see you as much as I have Creekpaw - he's in camp most of the time, and Tawnyrain seems to always have you running out and about."

Oakpaw hesitated. "I learned about distance hunting," she admitted. The kind and open look on her father's face fell, replaced with a sad and almost disappointed one. He sat down, curling his tail around his paws.

"Well, it was going to happen someday," he mewed, letting out a soft sigh. "Who showed you? Tawnyrain?"

She shook her head. "Tawnyrain told me to go hunting before I went back to camp, and then I ran into Stagfur's patrol. They had me join them, and Mountainfrost let Meadowpaw do it when we got to the DraftClan border."

"Well, it wouldn't happen at the SnowClan border, would it?" Her father's attempt at a lighthearted approach didn't work, but she offered him a purr anyways as he continued. "There's lower points of Clan life. You never heard the stories about distance hunting, did you?"

Oakpaw tilted her head. "Was I supposed to?"

"It was a story that the elders liked to tell me and my brothers," the warrior meowed. "Tanglewhisper and Miststar were never as fond of it as I was. They take it seriously, and even though Miststar doesn't like it, she's never expressly forbidden it, either."

"Why not?"

"It's a way that we get prey. Desperately need prey."

"So that makes it okay?" Oakpaw asked, anger starting to swirl in her belly.

"No. Survival isn't always pretty and honorable, Oakpaw, but it _is_ what all of us do." Deerburr adjusted himself, making himself more comfortable in front of his only daughter. "In the story that the elders told us, distance hunting used to happen to us from both DraftClan and SnowClan - it was a time before the river was formed, which is a story all on its own."

"NorthClan and SnowClan were always fighting," Oakpaw recited, "but StarClan knew that we'd always make better allies than enemies. They knew that we'd only get along from a distance, so they made the river."

Deerburr nodded his head. "Good," he praised in a purr. "Lionrock and Tigerfoot were never as fond of stories as you and Creekpaw are."

"But what about the distance hunting story?" Oakpaw pressed.

Her father let out a loud, rumbling purr. "Alright, alright. Don't rush me, Oakpaw." Amusement leaked into his tone. "So, once we realized that both SnowClan and DraftClan were lying to us about their scent blowing onto our side of the border, we started fights with both of them - fights that made StarClan make the river. Once it was formed, we had no more problems with SnowClan, so we focused all of our attention onto DraftClan.

"We went deeper into the territory, fight and hunting and claiming more land a we went. The story gets vague from there - either the DraftClan medicine cat received a sign from StarClan, or they just gave up. Either way, we returned their territory, continued our distance hunting, and nothing as changed since."

"And DraftClan hasn't questioned it?"

Deerburr shook his head. "If they have, then Miststar and Frostfang have been keeping that to themselves."

Oakpaw blinked. "Featherripple knows about it, doesn't he? And if he knows, then -"

"No," her feather meowed, stern. "Creekpaw doesn't need to worry about it. Not yet."

She was confused, but she didn't argue.

* * *

"If you say Graypaw, can you tell him I said hi?" Oakpaw requested.

Creekpaw nodded his head, a broad grin on his face. "I will!" he promised. " _And_ I'll brag about how well my sister is doing in her warrior training."

"Please don't."

The tom laughed. "I'm gonna do it."

"Creekpaw!" Oakpaw had spoken at the same time as Featherripple.

"Gotta go," the tortoiseshell mewed, innocent as could be, before he turned tail and limped towards his mentor. He waved his tail in a silent goodbye.

"Don't brag about me!" Oakpaw called after him. She could see Creekpaw's shoulders shaking in laughter as he left camp with the rest of the Gathering patrol. Her ears twitched at the sound of approaching pawsteps, and she turned her head to look at Gracekit, who stopped beside her.

"I'm going to miss him," the kit told her. She tilted her head, confused.

"He'll be back by tomorrow morning," Oakpaw reminded. "Shouldn't you be in the nursery?"

Gracekit shrugged her shoulders. "I guess so," she meowed, "but both mom and dad are gone."

"So you two are alone?"

"I get the feeling that's not the best idea." Oakpaw turned her head to look at Coalpaw, who had stopped at Gracekit's other side - she hadn't noticed him approach.

"Maybe Miststar's been busy, and she didn't realize that both her _and_ Littlenose were going," Oakpaw suggested.

Coalpaw gave a slow shrug of his shoulders. "Maybe," he agreed, "but Gracekit and Brackenkit are gonna spend the night in the apprentices' den."

"Really?" Gracekit asked, ears perked.

The tom nodded. "Go get Brackenkit." The kit didn't waste her time, quickly rising to her paws and bounding towards the nursery. Oakpaw sent Coalpaw a questioning look, but he only shrugged his shoulders for a second time in response. "They can sleep in Brokenpaw's nest."

* * *

"Wake up!" Creekpaw's voice yowled. He sounded panicked, but that barely registered in Oakpaw's tired mind. She lifted up her head, drowsily blinking her eyes and mumbled a "what" under her breath.

"Quiet down, Creekpaw," Coalpaw complained. "Is the Gathering over, already?"

"Nigh' 'ime," Oakpaw mumbled in way of an answer.

Brackenkit let out a wordless groan, but Gracekit's eyes were already wide and pinned on the medicine cat apprentice. "Is that blood?" she asked. "Creekpaw, why're you bleeding?"

Instantly, Oakpaw's tiredness left her, the thought of her brother being _hurt_ jolting her to awareness. "Are you hurt?" she checked. "What Clan did this to you? What cat did it?"

"Not a Clan," Creekpaw corrected. "Rogues! They attacked the Gathering! Come on, we gotta go!"

"But -" Oakpaw let out a growl, cutting of Coalpaw. Creekpaw wasted no time, rushing out of the den as fast as he could with Oakpaw on his heels. The rest of the NorthClan warriors were already in the clearing.

"Shouldn't we leave some cats here?" Adderclaw asked, looking around. "They could attack camp, couldn't they?"

Creekpaw shook his head. "Frostfang said not to worry about that."

The dark brown tom nodded his head. "let's go, then," he meowed. He led the way out of camp, the rest of the warriors and the two warrior apprentices following after him. Oakpaw flicked her tail at Creekpaw before she left the camp.

The run through the forest was a blur - she was surrounded by so many cats and had the goal of protecting their Clan in mind, and she didn't pay attention to how long it too to get to Snowstones. She leapt her way down the ravine that led down to Gathering place and the clearing that surrounded her, but she didn't pay any attention to the scenery. Cats - larger than any Northern cat and covered in black fur - were fighting against the Clan cats with the same amount of skill that Oakpaw had been sure only belonged to NorthClan. In spite of her surprise and confusion, the apprentice leapt at one of the dark-furred cats with her claws extended.

She dug her claws into the thin fur - _how is his fur so thin?_ Oakpaw wondered as she dug her fangs into a paw. _Isn't he cold?_ Out of the corner of her eye, she could see another apprentice quickly land two strikes on the dark-furred cat's muzzle. With a growl, the cat threw Oakpaw off of him. He backed up a few pawsteps, his eyes flicking from one apprentice to the other, and to her it was obvious that he was keeping his weight off of his recently-injured paw.

Oakpaw took less than a heartbeat to look at the other she-cat; she was panting, and already covered in clawmarks. She took it as an indicator that she had been at Snowstones when the rogues attacked. Her silver fur was even longer than Oakpaw's, and she had black markings in her pelt, some stripe-like and others spots. Her green eyes held lighter, silver flecks to them, as well as excitement and caution. She was covered in GlacierClan scent.

"Greenpaw," she introduced quickly.

"Oakpaw," she returned, just as swift.

The tom leapt for them, but he was interrupted by another cat landing on their back - one that Oakpaw recognized. He sent a charming smile her way.

"Nice seeing you here, Oakpaw!" Graypaw greeted. "Training well, huh?"

A small, snow-white she-cat rolled her blue eyes from next to her, lashing her long and plumy tail tot eh side. Like Greenpaw, her pretty pelt was covered in wounds, while Graypaw's was nearly untouched.

"They had him under control," she meowed.

Graypaw adjusted his paws when the tom under him struggled, making sure that he'd stay pinned. "Let me have my fun, Winterypaw," he complained.

"No."

Oakpaw heard a growl from behind her. Quickly, she turned around, her lips curled backwards in a snarl. Another dark-pelted cat leapt at her, paws and claws extended. Oakpaw leapt backwards, tail lashing to keep her balance as she landed. The cat still charged at her, and the tabby apprenticed lifted a paw and struck the she-cat across the muzzle as hard as she could. As predicted and practiced in her training, the dark-pelted cat pulled back her head, shaking it try and clear her daze. While she was preoccupied, Oakpaw swept her forepaws from under her.

Greenpaw, quick and agile like all GlacierClan cats were, easily leapt on top of the dark-pelted cat. Her claws dug into her shoulders, but that didn't stop the dark-pelted cat from under her to throw her off and swipe at Oakpaw's muzzle. Before she could return an attack, the she-cat leapt at her, pinning her down.

A new apprentice - a DraftClan cat - leapt that the dark-pelted she-cat. She was a blur of white and gray and brown, easily knocking the larger cat off of Oakpaw. Before anymore fighting could be done, the sound of manic laughter caught every cat's attention. Oakpaw turned her head to look up at the source.

Miststar was pinning one of the dark-furred cats on one of the stones, an impassive look on her face despite the new wounds she carried. The tom she had pinned was one of the largest of the dark-furred cats, and his head was thrown back as he laughed, green eyes lit with a twisted kind of joy. The sound send shivers down Oakpaw's spine.

"You've won this time," the tom declared, "but that doesn't mean that you've won the war."

"There is no war," Miststar told him in a growl.

The tom let out another laugh. "There _will_ be," he promised, then yowled "Shadows!" A black she-cat - small by the standards of the black-pelted cats but still large compared to the Northern ones - leapt onto the stone and easily knocked Miststar off of the tom. The she-cat's green eyes gave Oakpaw a familiar and unsettled feeling, as if she had seen them before but couldn't place where.

Once the rogues' apparent leader was freed, the dark-pelted cats fled.


	19. chapter eighteen

_"I think that you're not as dark as you want us to believe."_

"Swiftflight, Rustleclaw," Miststar called, unmoved from her place atop the stones, "follow them. Make sure that they leave Clan territory."

A black-and-brown tabby tom, one with blazing blue eyes and was covered in both old scars and fresh wounds, nodded his agreement. "Minktail and Ledgefoot will go with them," he decided.

"As will Stormrunner and Wildshadow," a silver tabby added, her blue eyes focused and clear as she weaved among the cats on her way to the Snowstones. She looked over her shoulder towards the crowd of cats. "Redstar, Cherrystar, will you be sending any cats?"

A ginger she-cat with brown patches in her fur nodded, her amber eyes holding an angered look to them. "Breezeclaw and Dawnfeather," Cherrystar informed, flicking her tail behind her as she spoke.

A flame-colored tom padded after her, nodding his head. "Redrain, Jadedwing, and Hickorytuft," Redstar meowed. "They seemed to be heading towards my Clan's territory."

The named cats left Snowstones in their strange, mismatched patrol. Oakpaw watched as they padded away, their ears perked and their careful trot screaming their alertness.

"All Clans will stay here until they've been tended to by a medicine cat," Cherrystar meowed, before she turned her head to look at her fellow leaders, silently asking for that approval.

The tabby tom nodded his head. "GlacierClan will stay here," he announced. _So he's Jumpstar,_ Oakpaw thought, her eyes flicking to the silver tabby. _And the silver tabby must be Dewystar._

Miststar nodded her head, remaining silent.

"FreezeClan won't be leaving until the patrol returns," Redstar declared.

"We'll wait," Dewystar mewed simply.

As the leaders fell silent, chattering rose up among the other cats in the clearing. Oakpaw turned her head to look at the apprentices around her, and her eyes landed first on the apprentice that had knocked the cat off of her.

Her eyes were a stunning blue color, and her pelt was a base white. Light gray dapples covered her shoulders and back, and her paws were a dark gray that faded smoothly into the white. Her tail tip, and a second layer of dapples, were dark brown.

"I'm Dappledpaw," the apprentice in question purred.

"I'm Greenpaw," the GlacierClan apprentice introduced cheerfully. "And this is Oakpaw," she added, flicking her tail towards the other tabby. She dipped her head to the other cats rather than offer a verbal greeting.

The SnowClan apprentice sent Dappledpaw the same smile he had given Oakpaw earlier as the young tabby sat down and curled her tail around her paws. "Graypaw," he introduced. "And this grumpy ball of fur is Winterypaw." The white-pelted she-cat rolled her eyes once more.

"Oakpaw!" a voice called. She turned her head to watch as Creekpaw shouldered his way through the crowd, looking relieved when he laid eyes on her. "Oakpaw!" he repeated, and this time his voice came out much happier. He rushed up to her, stopping beside her and sniffing her pelt. "Are you okay? Are you dizzy or anything? Cold at all?"

Oakpaw shook her head. "I'm fine," she meowed. "Only a scratch. Shouldn't you be with Featherripple?"

"He let me check on you, first," he told her.

"You're a medicine cat apprentice?" Greenpaw asked, tilting her head.

Creekpaw offered the GlacierClan cat a smile. "Well, not like I could be anything else," he mewed, flicking his tail towards his leg.

"Creekpaw," Oakpaw growled, her eyes narrowing.

The tortoiseshell only grinned at her, giving her a quick nuzzle before he stepped backwards. "Gotta go! Featherripple gets impatient," he chirped, turning tail and limping back into the crowd of cats with his tail flicking from side to side behind him.

"Say hi to Bluepaw for me!" Greenpaw called after him.

Graypaw turned his eyes to Oakpaw, tilting his head. "You seem close to him," he noted.

Oakpaw nodded her head. "We always have been."

Before he could respond, a voice yowled above the chatter. "Apprentices! Over here, apprentices!"

Oakpaw turned her head, catching a glimpse of a brown-and-cream figure through the crowd as it parted. Dappledpaw got to her paws, offering the group a smile. "Guess that's us," she mewed, beginning to pad towards the sound of the voice. Oakpaw stood and hurried after her, weaving between the other cats in the clearing to reach the cat who was calling for apprentices.

When the group arrived, Oakpaw spotted Coalpaw and Meadowpaw already there, along with Stonepaw - Oakpaw wasn't surprised to see that Creekpaw was already in front of the DraftClan tom, either. Sitting next to the bicolor she-cat who had called all the apprentices together (though, the young tabby noted that a more reddish-color found its home on her tail and a few patches on her flanks) was a blue-gray she-cat with bright blue eyes.

"Oh, there's Bluepaw," Greenpaw mewed. "I'm gonna go say hi."

"See you!" Dappledpaw chirped, waving her tail. Greenpaw offered a tail-wave of her own before she parted from the group, heading towards her - friend? Kin? Oakpaw wasn't sure.

"Who's that cat?" Oakpaw asked, looking at Graypaw and Winterypaw as she flicked her tail towards the brown-and-cream she-cat.

"That's Rosetail," Winterypaw told her. "She's the DraftClan medicine cat." Oakpaw nodded her head, letting out a hum as she looked back at the cats around her.

She spotted Brokenpaw padding towards the cluster of apprentices, three more on his heels. One was a lithe, brown-pelted she-cat with golden eyes and tufted ears. Another was a dark gray tom who had some gray in his pelt, along with fiery golden eyes. The last was a gray she-cat with dark blue eyes. All four cats were covered in wounds.

When the brown she-cat's eyes found Oakpaw, she padded out of her group and headed towards her. She paused in front of her leaning forwards to sniff at her pelt. Concerned, Oakpaw tilted her head, resisting the urge to glance towards either Dappledpaw, Winterypaw, or Graypaw.

"Are you a medicine cat apprentice?" she asked. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Winterypaw roll her's.

"No," Graypaw told her. "Her name's Heatherpaw, she's just -"

"You're so _young_!" Heatherpaw exclaimed, her eyes wide as she cut off the other apprentice, as if she hadn't even heard Graypaw speaking in the first place. "They sent you out here to fight?"

"They wouldn't send her out if she didn't know how to defend herself," Winterypaw growled, tone annoyed.

Again, she went ignored by Heatherpaw. "It looks like you've only been in training for a _moon_!"

"That's because I have," Oakpaw stated, but it came out sounding more like a question.

Technically, it was a lie. It hadn't even been a moon yet.

"Heatherpaw! Darkpaw!" Rosetail called. The apprentice - Oakpaw identified DraftClan scent clinging to her - looked over her shoulder at the medicine cat. "Come here." Looking over Heatherpaw's shoulder, she could see Greenpaw being treated by Bluepaw and wincing as herbs were applied to her wounds.

"But she's younger!" Heatherpaw argued, gesturing with her tail towards Oakpaw. "Shouldn't you treat her first?"

"She's hurt less," Rosetail countered gently. "Now come here. She quickly looked over the group of cats, stopping as she looked at the dark gray she-cat with blue eyes. "You, too, Falconpaw. "Bluepaw will treat you once she's finished," she told her, flicking her tail towards Bluepaw and Greenpaw.

Falconpaw lifted her head, seemingly surprised - because she was in a different Clan, maybe? Oakpaw couldn't catch any scent from her from where she was to confirm - that the other cat knew her name. She padded beside Darkpaw towards Rosetail, and with a huff, Heatherpaw joined them.

"She..." Oakpaw began, trailing off and hesitating before she tried again. "She seems nice." Graypaw laughed at her.


	20. chapter nineteen

_"We don't have a lot, but we've got each other."_

"Oakpaw! Creekpaw!" The warrior apprentice's eyes closed out of reflex as her mother's tongue drew over her ears, and she couldn't help but to let out a groan - though, she didn't move from her place, and she accepted the treatment begrudgingly. "Are you two alright?" the older tortoiseshell asked, pulling back and inspecting her kits' pelts for injuries.

"I'm an apprentice, now, mom," Oakpaw told her. "I can take care of myself."

"She got treated by Rosetail," her brother added.

"The DraftClan medicine cat?" Tanglewhisper asked in a murmur. The young tabby doubted that she actually needed the confirmation, but she nodded her head anyways. "And who treated _you_ , Creekpaw?"

"Rowanpaw," he meowed. After a few moments of confused silence from both she-cats, he clarified, "He's Duskleaf's apprentice."

Tanglewhisper sat back on her haunches. "Duskleaf's had that apprentice for a while. I'm almost surprised that I didn't learn his name before now - but I suppose I don't really make a habit of talking to the medicine cats, except for Featherripple and yourself, of course." She turned her head, giving her daughter a concerned look. "You don't need the day off from training tomorrow, do you? I can talk to Tawnyrain if you do."

Oakpaw had to repress the urge to both groan and roll her eyes. "It's just a scratch."

"If she has the day off tomorrow, then _I_ have to deal with her," Creekpaw put in. "I've already had to deal with Tigerfoot!"

"What happened to Tigerfoot?" Oakpaw asked, tilting her head.

"He got into a fight with a thorn bush." At that, Tanglewhisper let out a loud and rumbling purr, her whiskers twitching in amusement.

"May all cats strong enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the Spirit Tree for a Clan meeting!" Miststar's loud voice echoed through camp, cutting off the family's conversation. Without so much as a glance towards each other, the three stood and padded towards the Spirit Tree, sitting down next to each other and settling in their places as the rest of the Clan joined her.

Miststar's eyes scanned across the cats in the crowd once the chatter and movement ended. "It has come to my attention that one of our apprentices has proved themselves worthy to be a warrior, today," she announced. "Brokenpaw, step forwards."

Oakpaw sat up, her ears angling towards her leader before she shared a glance with her littermate. Excitement for her friend was finding a home in her chest, but Creekpaw didn't look as happy as she did; she supposed that was expected, though, as Oakpaw was the one that shared a den with him. More than anything else, her brother seemed surprised.

She turned her attention away from the tortoiseshell when Brokenpaw made his way past her to get to Miststar. "Congrats," she whispered to him. He turned his head to give her a quick, obviously-surprised smile in return. He stopped in the open space in front of the Spirit Tree that his Clan had made for him, staring up at his former mentor. The blue-gray lifted her gaze towards the sky, already starting to turn golden with the light from the rising sun.

"I, Miststar, leader of NorthClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice. They have trained hard to understand your noble code, and I commend him to you as a warrior in his turn." She turned her green eyes back to the tom below her. "Brokenpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

"I do," Brokenpaw swore with a nod of his head.

"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name. Brokenpaw, from this moment on you will be known as Brokenfur. StarClan honors your bravery and strength, and we welcome you as a full warrior of NorthClan." Miststar leapt off of her branch on the Spirit Tree, setting her muzzle on top of her former apprentice's head. In return, the new warrior licked the fur on her shoulder.

 _"Brokenfur!_ _Brokenfur!"_ The voices of NorthClan cats rose in the morning air, and Oakpaw smiled as she spoke along with the rest of her Clanmates.

* * *

"Hey, did you hear?" Creekpaw asked, his head tipped just slightly to the side as Oakpaw gently washed the new wound on her cheek - once more, she had failed to bring back fresh-kill for the Clan.

"Hear what?" Oakpaw questioned, almost absently.

"Ravenstone's moving into the nursery."

Oakpaw's ears perked at that, and she paused in her movements to blink at her brother. "Really? Who's the father?" She thought back to how the gruff the she-cat had been on the hunting patrol she had accompanied (she did her best not to think about what she'd learned on that patrol), and wondered what tom had fallen for her. She felt a twinge of guilt for the thought - did she not think that Ravenstone was a good enough cat to find herself a mate? She turned her head to glance around camp, as if she could tell by sight who the tom who she had charmed (had charmed her, maybe?) was.

"Frostfang," Creekpaw answered with a grin.

Oakpaw rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure."

"Well, he's not _really_ the father," he admitted. "But Ravenstone won't say who it is - Featherripple says it's up to the queen if she wants to share that or not, and that she's not the only one to do that, either - so Frostfang offered to help raise them if she wanted to, and she said yes, so he's _basically_ the father."

"Really?" the tabby repeated. The medicine cat apprentice nodded.

"Yeah! Apparently, it's not the first time, either. Featherripple told me about this kit that was taken into the Clan when he was a new warrior, and he said that he took care of her until she became an apprentice."

"What happened to her?"

"She died before she became a warrior." Creekpaw's ears flicked back against his skull as he spoke. Oakpaw assumed that he was the only cat who could be sad over someone he'd never met before - or, maybe he was thinking about another cat that didn't survive to be a warrior, not even to become an apprentice.

"Maybe you could meet her when you visit StarClan?" she suggested.

The tortoiseshell brightened at that, almost looking excited. "Yeah, maybe!" he chirped. "I can't tell you about the gatherings, but I could tell _her_ about _you_!"

"You don't have to. You have a better reason for going there, so you don't have to worry about me." She drew her tongue over her paw, returning to washing her scratches. "When's the next medicine cat gathering, anyway?"

"On the half moon," Creekpaw told her. "Featherripple says I'll have a StarClan mentor!"

She twitched an ear, amber eyes narrowing. "What's the point of that? What could they teach you that Featherripple can't?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno - it seems fun to me, though!"

Oakpaw paused in her actions once more, offering her brother a smile that she hoped didn't seem forced. "I'm sure it will be."

* * *

 **so i rewrote this whole thing, so if you're an old reader, you can go back to the beginning and read this whole thing over again. none of the story has changed, only the quality of writing and some character appearances, in order to make them more realistic. also, i'm not gonna reply to reviews this chapter, because i copied down the ones that i did before, but i think i might've missed a few, and i don't remember if i replied to the latest reviews or not? they'll pick up next chapter, though.**

 **for new readers, hi! feel glad you didn't have to read my old, only kinda-okay writing!**

 **also also, sorry for not posting a new chapter of this for a while. i don't have an excuse, i'm just lazy.**

 **anyways, love you all, thanks for spending your time reading my trash, bye!**


End file.
